Words & WritingGreek → English
Aposiopesis
/ˌæpəsaɪəˈpiːsɪs/noun
Breaking off a sentence unfinished, leaving the rest to be understood.
The Greek roots
ἀπό
apó
away from
σιωπάω
siōpáō
to be silent
Literally: “a falling silent”
The story of the word
Virgil gives the textbook case: Neptune rounds on the winds with Quos ego — "Whom I —" and stops, the threat worse for being unspoken. Roman rhetoricians took the Greek term over whole for the figure. Every trailing dash in a modern novel is doing the same job.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
Same family
apostasyapologyapostrophe
In a sentence
The witness managed "If you had only —" and then stopped, which the jury noticed.
Comic timing often runs on aposiopesis rather than on the punchline.