polyptoton

English

WOTD – 8 May 2009

Etymology

Via (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Ancient Greek πολύπτωτον (polúptōton), neuter of πολύπτωτος (polúptōtos, “having many cases”), from πολύς (polús, “many”) + πίπτω (píptō, “I fall”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌpɑ.ləpˈtoʊ.tɑn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

polyptoton (countable and uncountable, plural polyptota or polyptotons)

1. (rhetoric) A stylistic scheme in which words from the same root are used together, or a word is repeated in a different inflection or case.

Usage notes

An example of polyptoton appears in the following quote with variation on the word feed:

• c1595, William Shakespeare, Richard II, act II, scene i,

  With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder.

Hypernyms

• (rhetoric): ploce

Translations

stylistic scheme

• Czech: polyptoton n
• Finnish: polyptoton
• French: polyptote (fr) m
• German: Polyptoton n
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: poliptoto (it) m
• Portuguese: poliptoto m
• Russian: полиптотон m (poliptoton), многопаде́жие n (mnogopadéžije)
• Spanish: políptoton f

See also

• Category:English cognate expressions