Words & WritingGreek → English
Periphrasis
/pəˈrɪfrəsɪs/noun
Saying something in more words than it needs, whether as evasion, politeness or grammar.
The Greek roots
περί
perí
around
φράζειν
phrázein
to speak, to tell
Literally: “speaking around”
The story of the word
Periphrasis covers both the vice and the convention: 'at this moment in time' on one side, 'the gentleman from Ohio' on the other. Grammar has its own technical use, where a periphrastic form replaces an inflected one, as English does with 'more beautiful' instead of a single comparative word. The Latin calque of the Greek is circumlocution, assembled from exactly the same two pieces.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
Same family
paraphrasephrasephraseologyantiphrasis
In a sentence
Three paragraphs of periphrasis and he still had not said the branch was closing.
Homer's periphrasis for Heracles is the strength of Heracles, which counts as one hero and one metrical convenience.