epizeuxis

English

Etymology

From modern Latin epizeuxis, from Ancient Greek ἐπίζευξις (epízeuxis, “a fastening upon”), from ἐπιζευγνύναι (epizeugnúnai), from ἐπί (epí, “upon”) + ζευγνύναι (zeugnúnai, “to yoke”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɛpɪˈz(j)uːksɪs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

Examples
"O horror, horror, horror!" Shakespeare, Macbeth (II iii.)

epizeuxis (countable and uncountable, plural epizeuxes)

1. (rhetoric) The repetition of words in immediate succession for emphasis.
   • [1835, L[arret] Langley, A Manual of the Figures of Rhetoric, […], Doncaster: Printed by C. White, Baxter-Gate, →OCLC, page 78:

     An Epizeuxis twice a word repeats,
     And graces thus the theme on which it treats.]

   • 2020 February 17, Richard Cooke, “Wikipedia Is the Last Best Place on the Internet”, in Wired:

     Wikipedia weds this ranging interest to the kind of pertinence where Larry David's “Pretty, pretty good!” is given as an example of rhetorical epizeuxis.

   • 2022, Clive Bloom, The Palgrave Handbook of Gothic Origins, page 39:

     'O horror, horror, horror', Macduff cries, his epizeuxis reflecting a lack in the symbolic order itself.

Translations

repeating words in immediate succession

• Czech: epizeuxis f
• German: Epizeuxis f
• Greek:

  Ancient: ἐπίζευξις f (epízeuxis)

• Icelandic: síklifun f
• Latin: epizeuxis f
• Vietnamese: điệp từ

References

• Silva Rhetoricae

Further reading

• epizeuxis on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French épizeuxis.

Noun

epizeuxis n (uncountable)

1. epizeuxis

Declension

singular only	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	epizeuxis	epizeuxisul
genitive-dative	epizeuxis	epizeuxisului
vocative	epizeuxisule