different between periphrase vs periphrastic

English

Etymology

From Latin periphrasis from Ancient Greek ?????????? (períphrasis), from ???????????? (periphrázomai, “I consider all sides of an issue”), from ???? (perí, “around”) + ????? (phráz?, “I show, point out”). See phrase.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?p??i.f?e?z/
• Homophones: paraphrase (if the second vowel is pronounced as a schwa, as it sometimes is)

Noun

periphrase (countable and uncountable, plural periphrases)

1. (rhetoric) The use of more words than are necessary to express the idea; a roundabout, or indirect, way of speaking; circumlocution.
   • 1821, Thomas De Quincey, John Paul Frederick Richter (published in London Magazine

     To describe all those on whom the fates of Troy hinged , by enigmatic periphrases

   • 1863, George Eliot, Romola, Volume III, Book III, Chapter VI, page 56

     He held up the condition of the Church in the terrible mirror of his unflinching speech, which called things by their right names and dealt in no polite periphrases […]

Synonyms

• periphrasis

Derived terms

• periphrasic

Translations

Verb

periphrase (third-person singular simple present periphrases, present participle periphrasing, simple past and past participle periphrased)

1. (transitive) To express by periphrase or circumlocution.
2. (intransitive) To use circumlocution.

References

periphrase in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ????????????? (periphrastikós), from ?????????? (períphrasis, “periphrasis”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?p?.???f?æ.stik/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /?p?.???f?æ.st?k/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?p?.???f?æ.st?k/
• Rhymes: -æst?k

Adjective

periphrastic (comparative more periphrastic, superlative most periphrastic)

1. Expressed in more words than are necessary.
   • 1916, Martin Brown Ruud, An Essay Toward a History of Shakespeare in Norway

     As poetry it does not measure up to Aasen; as translation it is periphrastic, arbitrary, not at all faithful.

   • 1940, T. S. Eliot, East Coker:

     "That was a way of putting it—not very satisfactory/ A periphrastic study in a worn-out poetical fashion/ Leaving one still with the intolerable wrestle / With words and meanings."

2. Indirect in naming an entity; circumlocutory.
   • 1870, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Vril: The Power of the Coming Race

     In writing, they deem it irreverent to express the Supreme Being [and] in conversation they generally use a periphrastic epithet, such as the All-Good.

3. (grammar) Characterized by periphrasis.

   “The daughter of the man” may be used as a periphrastic synonym for “the man’s daughter”.

Related terms

• periphrase
• periphrasis
• periphrastic conjugation

Translations