periphrasis

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Ancient Greek περίφρασις (períphrasis).

Pronunciation

• 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".

3. (rhetoric) The substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a proper name (a species of circumlocution)
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 f
• Finnish: perifraasi (fi)
• French: périphrase (fr) f
• Galician: perífrase f
• Greek: περίφραση (el) f (perífrasi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: körülírás (hu)
• Italian: perifrasi (it) f
• Portuguese: perífrase (pt) f
• Russian: перифра́з (ru) m (perifráz), перифра́за (ru) f (perifráza)
• Spanish: perífrasis f
• Swedish: perifras (sv) c

References

• Silva Rhetoricae