different between periphrasis vs periphrase

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ?????????? (períphrasis).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US, Canada) IPA^(key): /p????f??s?s/

Noun

periphrasis (countable and uncountable, plural periphrases)

1. 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".
2. (linguistics) Expressing a grammatical meaning (such as a tense) using a syntactic construction rather than morphological marking.

   Language learners sometimes use periphrases like "did go" where a native speaker would use "went".

   Native speakers use periphrases like "did not go" where a language learner might use "went not".

3. (rhetoric) The substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a proper name (a type of circumlocution).
4. (rhetoric) The use of a proper name as a shorthand to stand for qualities associated with it.

Synonyms

• beating around the bush
• circumlocution

Related terms

• periphrase
• periphrastic

Translations

References

• Silva Rhetoricae

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.