Today's word is... asyndeton

I doubt my household is "average." Being a writer, I often discuss topics that most would find out of the ordinary (and some downright frightening).  "How long does it take to dissolve a body in hydrochloric acid?"
The other night a friend of mine came over for dinner, and my wife and I were debating the realistic population density of a primitive society in a 100 square mile area.  We, of course, dragged him into it.  Dinner at our house comes with a fair amount of implied nonsense.
Today, my wife and I debated a stylistic aspect of writing.  I "knew" I was right, but I didn't have a reference to point to (and yes I realize that I was ending a sentence with a preposition).  I asked Robin to go out and find the grammar rule that allows me to do what I wanted to do without being "grammatically incorrect." 
I'm sure we had this discussion before...maybe several years ago, but we had both remembered the outcome differently.  I'm blogging on it now, so that when the issue comes up three or four years from now, I can point to this post ;-)
Okay, just a bit more background and then we'll get into asyndeton...what it is and why I care.  There is a person in my writer's group who is having issues with a non-responsive agent.  He also does some self-publishing, and his sales to date are not where they should be given the strength of the story. So, Robin and I decided to help him out.  For his self-published work, I was going to make a new cover, and Robin was going to format it for print and ebook. 
While looking at the book Robin came across many sentences like this:

She licked her lips, reached for her purse, foraged in it. 

Which I thought was perfectly valid (even if it wasn't the way I would have written it). Robin, on the other hand, wanted to change it to:

 She licked her lips, reached for her purse, and foraged in it.

"No, I cried!" the first has a much better flow.  While your edit is more "conventional," I like that this author took the less trodden path.
For most of the morning, Robin didn't think the first was grammatically correct.  But I told her I do it all the time so it must be.  She shot back with, just because you do it doesn't make it "correct."  Authors are allowed to bend and break rules, and those in traditional publishing are granted more leeway in this regard then self-published authors (whether that should be the case is a topic for another day).
Anyway, I told Robin that if she added that "and" into a sentence of mine, I'd rip it out, so, she better find a rule that allows me to do so.  Bottom line, I didn't want to fight with her each time I made such a construction, and if I had the rules of grammar on my side it strengthens my case ;-).
Hence, we finally get to the point of this post, the asyndeton.  Which is (I suspect) a little-known rule of grammar. It took Robin quite a while to track down, but now that she has, I'm recording it for future reference.
So what is it? Here's the definition from the website,  Literary Devices:

"Asyndeton refers to a practice in literature whereby the author purposely leaves out conjunctions in the sentence, while maintaining the grammatical accuracy of the phrase. Asyndeton as a literary tool [that] helps in shortening up the implied meaning of the entire phrase and presenting it in a succinct form. This compact version helps in creating an immediate impact whereby the reader is instantly attuned to what the writer is trying to convey. Use of this literary device helps in creating a strong impact and such sentences have greater recall worth since the idea is presented in a nutshell."

If we delve a bit deeper, we find there are three general reasons for using asyndeton ( according to grammar and education portion of about.com )."When [asyndeton] is used in a series of words, phrases, or clauses, it suggests the series is somehow incomplete, that there is more the writer could have included." "Asyndeton can also create ironic juxtapositions that invite readers into collaborative relationships with writers: because there are no explicit connections between phrases and clauses, readers must supply them to reconstruct the writer's intent."
"Asyndeton can also quicken the pace of prose, especially when it is used between clauses and sentences."So, there you have it.  Perhaps you just learned a new word today, as well. If you're coming over this weekend for the Super Bowl party, I'll expect you to be able to recite its meaning or no nachos for you!