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Definition of Periphrasis
1. Noun. A style that involves indirect ways of expressing things.
Generic synonyms: Verboseness, Verbosity
Derivative terms: Ambagious, Circumlocutious, Periphrastic
Definition of Periphrasis
1. n. See Periphrase.
Definition of Periphrasis
1. Noun. The use of a longer expression instead of a shorter one with a similar meaning, for example "I am going to" instead of "I will". ¹
2. Noun. (linguistics) Expressing a grammatical meaning (such as a tense) using a syntactic construction rather than morphological marking. ¹
3. Noun. (rhetoric) The substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a proper name (a species of circumlocution) ¹
4. Noun. (rhetoric) The use of a proper name as a shorthand to stand for qualities associated with it. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Definition of Periphrasis
1. [n -PHRASES]
Lexicographical Neighbors of Periphrasis
Literary usage of Periphrasis
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. The History of the Anglo-Saxons: From the Earliest Period to the Norman Conquest by Sharon Turner (1852)
"So that of eighteen lines, the periphrasis occupies fourteen, ... No Saxon poem
can be inspected without the periphrasis being found to be the leading ..."
2. Progressive Exercises in English Composition by Richard Green Parker (1853)
"periphrasis, OR CIRCUMLOCUTION. A periphrasis, or circumlocution, is the use of
several words to express the sense of one. As, the glorious luminary of day, ..."
3. The Use of Physis in Fifth-century Greek Literature ...: By John Walter by John Walter Beardslee (1918)
"But the term periphrasis is sometimes used for that figure of speech in which
for rhetorical or poetical effect there is inserted a word wholly unnecessary ..."
4. An English Grammar: Methodical, Analytical, and Historical. With a Treatise by Eduard Adolf Ferdinand Maetzner (1874)
"Of various use, and extending most widely through the tenses, is the periphrasis
by the verb be with the participle of the present. ..."
5. Confessions of an English Opium-eater: And Suspiria de Profundis by Thomas De Quincey (1850)
"... for the sake of avoiding the constant recurrence of a cumbersome periphrasis,
the author will take the liberty of giving in the first person. ..."
6. The Elements of Anglo-Saxon Grammar: With Copious Notes Illustrating the by Joseph Bosworth (1823)
"Even when the same idea is multiplied by the periphrasis, the rest of the sentence
... OF periphrasis. 21. Another peculiarity of the Anglo-Saxon poetry is ..."
7. A Grammar of the New Testament Greek by Alexander Buttmann (1891)
"In all the above passages the Dative might be used just as well, but the adverbial
periphrasis is more lively, pictorial, and suited to the Oriental ..."
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