An epanorthosis is a figure of speech that signifies emphatic

word A word is a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no conse ...

replacement. "Thousands, no, millions!" is a stock example. Epanorthosis as immediate and emphatic self-correction often follows a

Freudian slip In psychoanalysis, a Freudian slip, also called parapraxis, is an error in speech, memory, or physical action that occurs due to the interference of an unconscious subdued wish or internal train of thought. Classical examples involve slips of ...

(either accidental or deliberate).

Etymology

The word , attested 1570, is from Ancient Greek () "correcting, revision" < () + () "restore, rebuild" < () "up" + () "straighten" < () "straight, right" (hence to "straighten up").

Examples

*"Seems, madam! Nay, it ''is''; I know not 'seems.'" (''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depic ...

'', Act 1, Scene 2) *"The psychologist known as Sigmund Fraud—''

Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts in ...

'', I mean!" *"I've been doing this for six weeks!—er, ''days'', that is." *"Man has parted company with his trusty friend the horse and has sailed into the azure with the eagles, eagles being represented by the infernal combustion engine–er er, ''internal'' combustion engine.

oud laughter , image=File:oud2.jpg , image_capt=Syrian oud made by Abdo Nahat in 1921 , background= , classification= *String instruments *Necked bowl lutes , hornbostel_sachs=321.321-6 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded with a plectrum , d ...

Internal combustion engine! Engine!" –

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1 ...

The words in

italics In typography, italic type is a cursive font based on a stylised form of calligraphic handwriting. Owing to the influence from calligraphy, italics normally slant slightly to the right. Italics are a way to emphasise key points in a printed tex ...

are technically the epanorthoses, but all the words following the dash may be considered part of the epanorthosis as well. Striking through words is another way of demonstrating such an effect. In

Aviation English Aviation English is the ''de facto'' international language of civil aviation. With the expansion of air travel in the 20th century, there were safety concerns about the ability of pilots and air traffic controllers to communicate. In 1951, the In ...

phraseology, the word "correction" must be explicitly used: "climb to reach Flight Level 290 at time 58 — ''correction'' at time 55". A classic

leet Leet (or "1337"), also known as eleet or leetspeak, is a system of modified spellings used primarily on the Internet. It often uses character replacements in ways that play on the similarity of their glyphs via reflection or other resemblan ...

-like online variant, using

caret notation Caret notation is a notation for control characters in ASCII. The notation assigns to control-code 1, sequentially through the alphabet to assigned to control-code 26 (0x1A). For the control-codes outside of the range 1–26, the ...

to denote

control character In computing and telecommunication, a control character or non-printing character (NPC) is a code point (a number) in a character set, that does not represent a written symbol. They are used as in-band signaling to cause effects other than the ...

s, is the use of ^H (as in "We've always used COBOL^H^H^H^H") to suggest a backspace, or ^W to suggest deletion of the preceding word. Both may be repeated as necessary. A more modern variant, where markup is available on the communication client, allows the use of plain strikethrough text to use for humorous effect, such as "''We are feeling ~~terrible~~ fine.''"

References

Figures of speech {{rhetoric-stub