periphrasis

noun [pəˈrɪfrəsɪs]

pronunciation

Editorial team; lemma absent from CMUdict (pipeline/ipa-en.mjs: periphrasis BRAK); stress from Webster Pe*riph"ra*sis; AmE/BrE variant possible; confirm with a phonetician; no frequency figure, open source

Periphrasis is a rhetorical figure: a thing is named indirectly by a longer descriptive stretch; apart from paraphrase, tautology, and ellipsis.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Definitions

ling. / rhet. / styl. In rhetoric and style: a writer drops the plain label and describes a thing or idea with extra wording. Axis sits at roundabout wording. Paraphrase neighbours it through restatement of similar length. Ellipsis lies on the opposite quantity pole.

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
hist. lex. Arct 1921: Peryfraza covers omówienie, a rhetorical device applied when several defining words stand in for an outright name; also Peryfrattyczny. Brückner skips. Webster PERIPHRASE / PERIPHRASIS (Rhet.): roundabout wording; circumlocution; De Quincey. Skeat: Gk. περίφρασις. Nearby: PERIPHRASTIC.

source
Editorial team; facts: M. Arct 1921 (Peryfraza; Peryfrattyczny); A. Brückner 1927 (no peryfraz*); Webster 1913 (PERIPHRASE; PERIPHRASIS; PERIPHRASTIC; PERIPHRASTICAL); W. W. Skeat 1910 (PERIPHRASIS), open source
didact. / rhet. Classroom talk places the lemma beside tautology, pleonasm, ellipsis, euphemism, metaphor, allegory, apostrophe, anaphora, epiphora, alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, litotes, irony, antithesis, oxymoron, stylistics, and rhetoric. Borders with paraphrase and with euphemism need review.

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
colloq. Casual notes dump every wordiness or every paraphrase under this label. This card keeps one axis: circumlocution that replaces a plain label with extra wording (Arct Peryfraza; Webster PERIPHRASE). Contrasts: tautology, pleonasm, ellipsis, euphemism. Apart from paraphrase (restatement of similar length).

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Examples

Webster under PERIPHRASE (Rhet.) cites De Quincey on describing by enigmatic periphrases; that is roundabout naming, not plain wordiness and not paraphrase of similar length.

source
Editorial team; facts: Webster 1913 (PERIPHRASE), open source
Morning drill ran on deliberate circumlocution with extra wording; tautology returned on the same-sense-restatement side, pleonasm on the lexeme-surplus side, ellipsis on the omission side.

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Source shelf: Arct Peryfraza (1921) with the omówienie-instead-of-outright-name axis, Webster PERIPHRASE / PERIPHRASIS (1913), Skeat 1910 (Gk. περίφρασις), Brückner with no peryfraz* lemma.

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
A worksheet that stamped every wordiness as periphrasis erased the split between roundabout naming and paraphrase (restatement of similar length) or tautology (same-sense restatement).

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Board labels: periphrasis (roundabout naming) | paraphrase (restatement of similar length) | tautology (same-sense restatement) | pleonasm (surplus) | ellipsis (omission) | euphemism | stylistics, keeping circumlocution apart from restatement, lexeme surplus, omission, and etiquette softening.

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Usage

Casual notes may brand any wordiness as periphrasis with no axis. Seminar peels layers: naming a thing through extra wording; circumlocution (Webster PERIPHRASE); tautology as same-sense-restatement foil; pleonasm as lexeme-surplus foil; ellipsis as omission foil. Arct keeps Peryfraza on the omówienie axis. Webster keeps the lemma on roundabout wording and circumlocution; De Quincey. Skeat traces Greek περίφρασις and cites Puttenham Arte of Poesie. Brückner skips. Without layers only a hollow slogan about wordiness remains.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Open-book record. In Arct (1921) the Polish lemma marks omówienie: defining words take the place of an outright name; separately Peryfrattyczny. Webster 1913 under PERIPHRASE (Rhet.) records more words than needed and a roundabout or indirect way of speaking (circumlocution); De Quincey quote; PERIPHRASIS with plural Periphrases; PERIPHRASTIC / PERIPHRASTICAL; periphrastic conjugation (Gram.). Skeat 1910: L. periphrasis, Gk. περίφρασις via περί (round) and φράσις (speech, phrase); Blount 1674; Puttenham; derivatives periphrase vb., periphrastic. Brückner 1927 leaves the Polish lemma blank. Derivation under etymology.

source

Editorial team; facts: M. Arct 1921 (Peryfraza; Peryfrattyczny); Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 (PERIPHRASE; PERIPHRASIS; PERIPHRASTIC); W. W. Skeat 1910 (PERIPHRASIS); A. Brückner 1927 (no lemma), open source

Careful English usage marks roundabout naming when compression talk flips and when extra wording serves description rather than plain restatement (Webster). Editors drop worksheets that stamp every wordiness as the rhetorical figure and drop glosses that never name the circumlocution axis. The periphrasis / paraphrase / tautology / pleonasm / ellipsis border stays debated. Chronology of the label stays blank until a primary page is cited. Polish counterpart: peryfraza (SGJP present).

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Workshops place roundabout naming among tropes next to tautology, pleonasm, ellipsis, euphemism, metaphor, allegory, anaphora, epiphora, apostrophe, alliteration, assonance, antithesis, oxymoron, irony, hyperbole, litotes, simile, metonymy, synecdoche, onomatopoeia, stylistics, rhetoric, and semantics. CMUdict lacks periphrasis (editorial IPA /pəˈrɪfrəsɪs/). Polish peryfraza sits in SGJP. Live neighbours include those tropes. Without the circumlocution axis the label collapses into paraphrase talk or plain wordiness talk.

source

Editorial team; facts: Webster 1913 (PERIPHRASE; PERIPHRASIS); CMUdict (periphrasis absent); SGJP / Morfeusz 2 (peryfraza present), open source

Word forms

Countable noun: singular periphrasis / plural periphrases (Webster). Nearby Webster forms: periphrase (n. and v.t./v.i.), periphrastic / periphrastical (a.), periphrastic conjugation (Gram.). CMUdict lemma periphrasis absent.

forms in use

przypadek	forma
singular	periphrasis
plural	periphrases (Webster PERIPHRASIS)
related noun (Webster)	periphrase (Webster PERIPHRASE)
related verb (Webster)	periphrase (v.t. / v.i.; Webster PERIPHRASE)
related adjective (Webster)	periphrastic / periphrastical (Webster PERIPHRASTIC; PERIPHRASTICAL)
related grammar label (Webster)	periphrastic conjugation (Webster PERIPHRASTIC)

Word forms: Editorial team; facts: Webster 1913 (PERIPHRASE; PERIPHRASIS; PERIPHRASTIC; PERIPHRASTICAL); CMUdict (periphrasis absent) · source

Collocations

rhetorical periphrasis

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
periphrasis against paraphrase

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
roundabout naming

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
stylistic periphrasis

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
distinguish periphrasis from tautology

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Synonyms · Antonyms

Synonyms peryfraza (Polish counterpart; SGJP present; Arct Peryfraza; check scope at review), circumlocution (loose descriptive neighbour; Webster PERIPHRASE; check scope at review), roundabout way of speaking (approximation; Webster PERIPHRASE; Skeat PERIPHRASIS; check scope at review), omówienie / describing instead of naming outright (approximation; Arct Peryfraza; check scope at review)

source

Editorial team; facts: SGJP / Morfeusz 2 (peryfraza present); M. Arct 1921 (Peryfraza), open source

Antonyms plain naming (contrast: naming a thing outright without roundabout wording; check scope at review), ellipsis (axis contrast: omission of context-obvious words, not roundabout naming with extra wording; live EN pair; not a clean antonym of the label alone), concise naming (contrast: label without circumlocution; check scope at review)

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Etymology

English periphrasis rests on Webster's PERIPHRASE / PERIPHRASIS cards: more words than needed to express the idea; roundabout or indirect speech; circumlocution (De Quincey example); neighbouring cards cover PERIPHRASTIC, PERIPHRASTICAL, and periphrastic conjugation. Skeat 1910 treats PERIPHRASIS as Latin periphrasis from Greek περίφρασις (roundabout speech), built from περί (around) plus φράσις (phrase, speech); Blount records Periphrase in 1674; Puttenham Arte of Poesie bk.iii c.18; listed derivatives include periphrase vb. and periphrastic. Arct 1921 indexes Peryfraza and Peryfrattyczny. Brückner 1927 does not index peryfraz*. We avoid copying dictionary wording. Polish counterpart: peryfraza. Axis of this card: rhetorical / stylistic roundabout naming.

source

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 (PERIPHRASE; PERIPHRASIS; PERIPHRASTIC), open source

also

W. W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed., Oxford 1910 (PERIPHRASIS), open source

also

M. Arct, Słownik wyrazów obcych, 9th ed., Warsaw 1921 (Peryfraza; Peryfrattyczny), open source

also

A. Brückner, Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego, Kraków 1927 (no peryfraz* lemma), open source

Related words

tautology , axis foil (same-judgment restatement, not roundabout naming); EN pair already live
pleonasm , axis foil (lexeme surplus, not roundabout naming); EN pair already live
ellipsis , axis foil (omission of a word, not roundabout naming); EN pair already live
euphemism , trope neighbour (etiquette softening; may use roundabout naming); EN pair already live
metaphor , trope neighbour (transfer); EN pair already live
allegory , trope neighbour (extended transfer); EN pair already live
apostrophe , trope neighbour (second-person address); EN pair already live
anaphora , trope neighbour (shared lexeme at openings); EN pair already live
epiphora , trope neighbour (shared lexeme at closings); EN pair already live
alliteration , trope neighbour (consonant echo); EN pair already live
assonance , trope neighbour (vowel echo); EN pair already live
onomatopoeia , trope neighbour (sound-of-thing echo); EN pair already live
irony , foil along the sense axis (reversal); EN pair already live
antithesis , trope neighbour (opposing members); EN pair already live
oxymoron , trope neighbour; EN pair already live
hyperbole , axis foil (scale overstatement, not roundabout naming); EN pair already live
litotes , axis foil (understatement); EN pair already live
simile , foil along the likeness axis (open pairing with like / as); EN pair already live
metonymy , trope neighbour (contiguity transfer); EN pair already live
synecdoche , trope neighbour (part for whole); EN pair already live
stylistics , domain of style (periphrasis axis sits in stylistics); EN pair already live
rhetoric , domain of tropes; EN pair already live
peryfraza , Polish counterpart (SGJP present; Webster PERIPHRASIS)

Related entries

The same entry in Polish: peryfraza

Questions and answers

What does periphrasis mean?

It marks a rhetorical figure: the writer describes a thing with extra wording instead of a plain label. Paraphrase is restatement in other words of similar length. Tautology is same-sense restatement. Pleonasm is surplus wording beyond need. Ellipsis omits context-obvious words. Plain wordiness without the figure fails to replace this card.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

How does periphrasis differ from paraphrase?

Periphrasis on this card keeps circumlocution: extra wording replaces a plain label (Arct Peryfraza; Webster PERIPHRASE). Paraphrase is restatement of content in other words at similar length, not circumlocution. Roundabout-naming axis differs from similar-length-restatement axis; school shortcuts blur the labels often.

source

Editorial team; facts: M. Arct 1921 (Peryfraza); Webster 1913 (PERIPHRASE), open source

How does periphrasis differ from tautology, pleonasm, and ellipsis?

Under periphrasis the axis sits at roundabout naming with extra wording (Arct Peryfraza; Webster PERIPHRASE). Tautology (Arct Tautologia; Webster TAUTOLOGY) keeps same-sense restatement. Pleonasm (Arct Pleonazm; Webster PLEONASM) keeps surplus wording. Ellipsis (Arct Elipsa; Webster ELLIPSIS) omits context-obvious words. Axis foil: roundabout naming versus restatement versus surplus versus omission.

source

Editorial team; facts: M. Arct 1921 (Peryfraza; Tautologia; Pleonazm); Webster 1913 (PERIPHRASE; TAUTOLOGY; PLEONASM), open source

Where does the word periphrasis come from, and what forms sit with it?

Webster 1913 ties PERIPHRASE / PERIPHRASIS to roundabout wording and circumlocution; PERIPHRASTIC, PERIPHRASTICAL, and periphrastic conjugation sit nearby. Skeat 1910: PERIPHRASIS (L. periphrasis; Gk. περίφρασις; περί; φράσις; Blount; Puttenham). Arct 1921: Peryfraza; Peryfrattyczny. Brückner 1927: no lemma. Forms: periphrasis / periphrases; periphrase (n. and v.). Editorial IPA (CMUdict absent): /pəˈrɪfrəsɪs/. Polish pair: peryfraza (SGJP present).

source

Editorial team; facts: Webster 1913; CMUdict (periphrasis absent); SGJP / Morfeusz 2 (peryfraza present), open source

Is every wordiness a periphrasis?

No. Any wordiness can be plain verbosity or failed style without the figure. Periphrasis holds deliberate roundabout naming through more words than a plain label (Arct; Webster: circumlocution). Without that axis the label collapses into paraphrase talk, tautology talk, or plain wordiness.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)