Catacosmesis is the Greek word for "to set in order".
In rhetoric, it refers to a
device in which there is a descending order of words or
phrase
In grammar, a phrasecalled expression in some contextsis a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English language, English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adject ...
s, either in order of importance, dignity or time, and either abrupt or gradual.
It is considered to be synonymous with
anticlimax. The opposite of catacosmesis is
auxesis when used to refer to
climax
Climax may refer to:
Language arts
* Climax (narrative), the point of highest tension in a narrative work
* Climax (rhetoric), a figure of speech that lists items in order of importance
Biology
* Climax community, a biological community th ...
, wherein a series of clauses has increasing, rather than decreasing, force.
Catacosmesis is distinct from
bathos
Bathos ( ;''Oxford English Dictionary'', 1st ed. "bathos, ''n.'' Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1885. , "depth") is a literary term, first used in this sense in Alexander Pope's 1727 essay " Peri Bathous", to describe an amusingly ...
because the former is a relative term, requiring that a phrase or word is proceeded by something greater in dignity, time, or some other metric, whereas bathos may apply to an entire work, text, or speech, with no major changes in dignity.
An example of catacosmesis is:
Here, the verbs "die", "faint", and "fail" are arranged such that the most important of them (die) is first and the least important (fail) last.
Another example of catacosmesis is the
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
motto:
Here, the nouns "God", "country", and "Yale" are ordered so that the most important (God) is first and the least important (Yale) last.
Catacosmesis may also be used for humorous statements due to the juxtaposition of phrases leading to the anticlimax, as in the following statements:
See also
*
Anticlimax
*
Auxesis, the opposite device, in which clauses increase in force
*
Climax
Climax may refer to:
Language arts
* Climax (narrative), the point of highest tension in a narrative work
* Climax (rhetoric), a figure of speech that lists items in order of importance
Biology
* Climax community, a biological community th ...
, the specific form of auxesis which serves as the opposite of catacosmesis
*
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...
*
Rhetorical Device
In rhetoric, a rhetorical device, persuasive device, or stylistic device is a technique that an author or speaker uses to convey to the listener or reader a meaning with the goal of persuading them towards considering a topic from a perspective, ...
References
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Figures of speech