Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Rhetorical Terms

There are so many of these terms! There's legitimately a word for everything.


accismus - A feigned refusal of that which is earnestly desired.

example: Thank you, but I can't let you pay for that all on your own.


conduplicatio - The repetition of a word or words. A general term for repetition sometimes carrying the more specific meaning of repetition of words in adjacent phrases or clauses.

example: Life is what is being cherish at this wedding, oh sweet life.


epistrophe - Ending a series of lines, phrases, clauses, or sentences with the same word or words.

example: What they had is now lost, what we had is also lost, now I am still lost.


tapinosis - Giving a name to something which diminishes it in importance.

example: It was recently said of the Statue of Liberty that she is, "just a green lady in the middle of an ugly lake."

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