periphrastic

English

WOTD – 10 February 2010

Borrowed from Ancient Greek περιφραστικός (periphrastikós), from περίφρασις (períphrasis, “periphrasis”).

periphrastic (not comparable)

Expressed in more words than are necessary.
He wrote a periphrastic love letter to his wife to patch up their relationship.

She was simply asked to express how she felt, but her response was periphrastic.
- 1916, Martin Brown Ruud, An Essay Toward a History of Shakespeare in Norway‎^[1]:
  As poetry it does not measure up to Aasen; as translation it is periphrastic, arbitrary, not at all faithful.
- 1940, T. S. Eliot, East Coker:
  That was a way of putting it—not very satisfactory/ A periphrastic study in a worn-out poetical fashion/ Leaving one still with the intolerable wrestle / With words and meanings.
Indirect in naming an entity; circumlocutory.
- 1871, Edward Bulwer-Lytton (published anonymously), The Coming Race‎^[2], Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons:
  In writing, they deem it irreverent to express the Supreme Being [and] in conversation they generally use a periphrastic epithet, such as the All-Good.
(grammar) Characterized by periphrasis.
“The daughter of the man” may be used as a periphrastic synonym for “the man’s daughter”.

expressed in more words than are necessary

indirect in naming an entity; circumlocutory

grammar: characterized by periphrase or circumlocution