periphrasis

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek περίφρασις (períphrasis).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US, Canada) IPA^(key): /pəˈɹɪfɹəsɪs/

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).
   • [1835, L[arret] Langley, A Manual of the Figures of Rhetoric, […], Doncaster: Printed by C. White, Baxter-Gate, →OCLC, page 37:

     Periphrasis a single thought expands,
     And uses many words for what but few demands.]

   • 1879, F. D. Morice, Pindar, chapter 4, page 63:

     The "glen," or the "brake of the lion," is Pindar's favourite periphrasis for Nemea.

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

use of a longer expression instead of a shorter one

• Asturian: perífrasis f
• Catalan: perífrasi (ca) f
• Finnish: perifraasi (fi)
• French: périphrase (fr) f
• Galician: perífrase f
• Greek: περίφραση (el) f (perífrasi)
• Hungarian: körülírás (hu)
• Italian: perifrasi (it) f
• Kazakh: перифраза (perifraza), бүкпе сөз (bükpe söz)
• Portuguese: perífrase (pt) f
• Russian: перифра́з (ru) m (perifráz), перифра́за (ru) f (perifráza)
• Spanish: perífrasis (es) f
• Swedish: perifras (sv) c

References

• Silva Rhetoricae