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Circumlocutions
Circumlocution (also called circumduction, circumvolution, periphrasis, kenning, or ambage) is the use of an unnecessarily large number of words to express an idea. It is sometimes necessary in communication (for example, to work around lexical gaps that might otherwise lead to untranslatability), but it can also be undesirable (when an uncommon or easily misunderstood figure of speech is used). It can also come in the form of roundabout speech wherein many words are used to describe something that already has a common and concise term (for example, saying "a tool used for cutting things such as paper and hair" instead of "scissors"). Most dictionaries use circumlocution to define words. Circumlocution is often used by people with aphasia and people learning a new language, where simple terms can be paraphrased to aid learning or communication (for example, paraphrasing the word "grandfather" as "the father of one's father"). Among other usages, circumlocution can be used to constru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Euphemism
A euphemism ( ) is when an expression that could offend or imply something unpleasant is replaced with one that is agreeable or inoffensive. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the user wishes to downplay. Euphemisms may be used to mask profanity or refer to Dysphemism#Taboo terms, topics some consider Word taboo, taboo such as mental or physical disability, sexual intercourse, bodily excretions, pain, violence, illness, or death in a polite way. Etymology ''Euphemism'' comes from the Greek language, Greek word () which refers to the use of 'words of good omen'; it is a compound of (), meaning 'good, well', and (), meaning 'prophetic speech; rumour, talk'. ''Eupheme (deity), Eupheme'' is a reference to the female Greek spirit of words of praise and positivity, etc. The term ''euphemism'' itself was used as a euphemism by the ancient Greeks; with the meaning "to keep a holy silence" (speaking well by not speaking at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Periphrasis
In linguistics and literature, periphrasis () is the use of a larger number of words, with an implicit comparison to the possibility of using fewer. The comparison may be within a language or between languages. For example, "more happy" is periphrastic in comparison to "happier", and English "I will eat" is periphrastic in comparison to Spanish . The term originates from the Greek worπεριφράζομαι 'talking around', and was originally used for examples that came up in ancient Greek. In epic poetry, it was common to use periphrasis in examples such as "the sons of the Achaeans" (meaning the Achaeans), or "How did such words escape the fence of your teeth?" (adding a layer of poetic imagery to "your teeth"). Sometimes periphrastic forms were used for verbs that would otherwise be unpronounceable. For example, the verb δείκνυμι 'to show', has a hypothetical form * , which has the disallowed consonant cluster , so one would instead say , using a periphrasis with a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary (mother Of Jesus)
Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under various titles such as virgin or queen, many of them mentioned in the Litany of Loreto. The Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Reformed, Baptist, and Lutheran churches believe that Mary, as mother of Jesus, is the Mother of God. The Church of the East historically regarded her as Christotokos, a term still used in Assyrian Church of the East liturgy. Other Protestant views on Mary vary, with some holding her to have lesser status. She has the highest position in Islam among all women and is mentioned numerous times in the Quran, including in a chapter named after her.Jestice, Phyllis G. ''Holy people of the world: a cross-cultural encyclopedia, Volume 3''. 2004, , p558 Sayyidana Maryam . She is also revered in the Baháʼí Faith and the Druze Faith. The synoptic Gospels name Mary as the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sesquipedalianism
Verbosity, or verboseness, is speech or writing that uses more words than necessary. The opposite of verbosity is succinctness. Some teachers, including the author of ''The Elements of Style'', warn against verbosity. Similarly Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway, among others, famously avoided it. Synonyms of "verbosity" include wordiness, verbiage, loquacity, garrulousness, logorrhea, prolixity, grandiloquence, expatiation, sesquipedalianism, and overwriting. Etymology and synonyms The word ''verbosity'' comes from Latin ''verbosus'', "wordy". There are many other English words that also refer to the use of excessive words. ''Prolixity'' comes from Latin ''prolixus'', "extended". ''Prolixity'' can also be used to refer to the length of a monologue or speech, especially a formal address such as a lawyer's oral argument. ''Grandiloquence'' is complex speech or writing judged to be pompous or bombastic diction. It is a combination of the Latin words ''grandis'' ("great") and ''l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Periphrasis
In linguistics and literature, periphrasis () is the use of a larger number of words, with an implicit comparison to the possibility of using fewer. The comparison may be within a language or between languages. For example, "more happy" is periphrastic in comparison to "happier", and English "I will eat" is periphrastic in comparison to Spanish . The term originates from the Greek worπεριφράζομαι 'talking around', and was originally used for examples that came up in ancient Greek. In epic poetry, it was common to use periphrasis in examples such as "the sons of the Achaeans" (meaning the Achaeans), or "How did such words escape the fence of your teeth?" (adding a layer of poetic imagery to "your teeth"). Sometimes periphrastic forms were used for verbs that would otherwise be unpronounceable. For example, the verb δείκνυμι 'to show', has a hypothetical form * , which has the disallowed consonant cluster , so one would instead say , using a periphrasis with a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inflection
In linguistic Morphology (linguistics), morphology, inflection (less commonly, inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical category, grammatical categories such as grammatical tense, tense, grammatical case, case, grammatical voice, voice, grammatical aspect, aspect, grammatical person, person, grammatical number, number, grammatical gender, gender, grammatical mood, mood, animacy, and definiteness. The inflection of verbs is called ''grammatical conjugation, conjugation'', while the inflection of nouns, adjectives, adverbs, etc. can be called ''declension''. An inflection expresses grammatical categories with affixation (such as prefix, suffix, infix, circumfix, and transfix), apophony (as Indo-European ablaut), or other modifications. For example, the Latin verb ', meaning "I will lead", includes the suffix ', expressing person (first), number (singular), and tense-mood (future indicative or present subjunctive). Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Compound (linguistics)
In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme (less precisely, a word or Sign language, sign) that consists of more than one Word stem, stem. Compounding, composition or nominal composition is the process of word formation that creates compound lexemes. Compounding occurs when two or more words or signs are joined to make a longer word or sign. Consequently, a compound is a unit composed of more than one stem, forming words or signs. If the joining of the words or signs is orthographically represented with a hyphen, the result is a hyphenated compound (e.g., ''must-have'', ''hunter-gatherer)''. If they are joined without an intervening space, it is a closed compound (e.g., ''footpath'', ''blackbird''). If they are joined with a space (e.g. ''school bus, high school, lowest common denominator''), then the result – at least in English – may be an open compound. The meaning of the compound may be similar to or different from the meaning of its components in isolation. The component stem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Auxiliary Verb
An auxiliary verb ( abbreviated ) is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, so as to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or a participle, which respectively provide the main semantic content of the clause. An example is the verb ''have'' in the sentence ''I have finished my lunch.'' Here, the auxiliary ''have'' helps to express the perfect aspect along with the participle, ''finished''. Some sentences contain a chain of two or more auxiliary verbs. Auxiliary verbs are also called helping verbs, helper verbs, or (verbal) auxiliaries. Research has been conducted into split inflection in auxiliary verbs. Basic examples Below are some sentences that contain representative auxiliary verbs from English, Spanish, German and French, with the auxiliary verb marked in bold: ::a. Do you want tea? – ''do'' is an auxiliary accompanying the infinitive, ''want'', used ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Analytic Language
An analytic language is a type of natural language in which a series of root/stem words is accompanied by prepositions, postpositions, particles and modifiers, using affixes very rarely. This is opposed to synthetic languages, which synthesize many concepts into a single word, using affixes regularly. Syntactic roles are assigned to words primarily by word order. For example, by changing the individual words in the Latin phrase "''fēl-is pisc-em cēpit''" ("the cat caught the fish") to "''fēl-em pisc-is cēpit''" ("the fish caught the cat"), the fish becomes the subject, while the cat becomes the object. This transformation is not possible in an analytic language without altering the word order. Typically, analytic languages have a low morpheme-per-word ratio, especially with respect to inflectional morphemes. No natural language, however, is purely analytic or purely synthetic. Background The term ''analytic'' is commonly used in a relative rather than an absolute s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Triskaidekaphobia
Triskaidekaphobia ( , ; ) is fear or avoidance of the number . It is also a reason for the fear of Friday the 13th, called ''paraskevidekatriaphobia'' () or ''friggatriskaidekaphobia'' ( and ). The term was used as early as in 1910 by Isador Coriat in ''Abnormal Psychology''. Origins The supposed unlucky nature of the number 13 has several theories of origin. Although several authors claim it is an older belief, no such evidence has been documented so far. In fact, the earliest attestation of 13 being unlucky is first found after the Middle Ages in Europe. Playing cards Tarot card games have been attested since at least around 1450 with the Visconti-Sforza Tarot. One of the trump cards in tarot represents Death, and is numbered 13 in several variants. In 1781, Antoine Court de Gébelin writes of this card's presence in the Tarot of Marseilles that the number thirteen was ''"toujours regarde comme malheureux"'' ("always considered as unlucky"). In 1784, Johann Gottlob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baker's Dozen
A dozen (commonly abbreviated doz or dz) is a grouping of twelve. The dozen may be one of the earliest primitive integer groupings, perhaps because there are approximately a dozen cycles of the Moon, or months, in a cycle of the Sun, or year. Twelve is convenient because it has a maximal number of divisors among the numbers up to its double, a property only true of 1, 2, 6, 12, 60, 360, and 2520. The use of twelve as a base number, known as the duodecimal system (also as ''dozenal''), originated in Mesopotamia (see also sexagesimal). Twelve dozen (122 = 144) are known as a gross; and twelve gross (123 = 1,728, the duodecimal 1,000) are called a great gross, a term most often used when shipping or buying items in bulk. A great hundred, also known as a small gross, is 120 or ten dozen. Dozen may also be used to express a moderately large quantity as in "several dozen" (e.g., dozens of people came to the party). Varying by country, some products are packaged or sold b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Scottish Play
''The Scottish Play'' and ''the Bard's play'' are euphemism, euphemisms for the William Shakespeare play ''Macbeth''. The first is a reference to the play's Scotland, Scottish setting, and the second is a reference to Shakespeare's popular nickname. According to a theatrical superstitions, theatrical superstition, called the ''Scottish curse'', speaking the name ''Macbeth'' inside a theatre, other than as called for in the script while rehearsing or performing, will cause disaster. On top of the aforementioned alternative titles, some people also refer to the classical tragedy as ''Mackers'' for this reason. Variations of the superstition may also forbid quoting lines from the play within a theatre except as part of an actual rehearsal or performance of the play. Because of this superstition, the Macbeth (character), title character is often referred to as the ''Scottish King'' or ''Scottish Lord''. Lady Macbeth is often referred to as the ''Scottish Lady'' or ''Lady M''. Howe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
