prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
prettygoodword ([personal profile] prettygoodword) wrote2010-03-09 07:30 am

periphrastic

periphrastic (per-eh-FRAS-tik) - adj., circumlocutory, roundabout, using more words than necessary.


That is, concerned with or characterized by periphrasis. There is also a grammatical sense which, being not nearly of as much interest, we need not at the moment concern ourselves with. Adopted around 1805 or so, give or take, from ancient Greek periphrasis, in turn from periphrazomai, lit. "I consider all sides of an issue", which is composed from peri-, around + phrazō, I show.

---L.

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