different between periphrasis vs periphrastic

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

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