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Circumlocution
Definitions
- 1 A roundabout or indirect way of speaking; thus uncountable
"Circumlocution is a large deſcription either to ſette forth a thyng more gorgiouſlie, or els to hyde it, if the eares cannot beare the open ſpeakyng: or when with fewe woordes we cannot open our meanyng, to ſpeake it more largely."
- 2 an indirect way of expressing something wordnet
- 3 A roundabout or indirect way of speaking; thus:; Unnecessary use of extra words to express an idea, such as a pleonastic phrase (sometimes driven by an attempt at emphatic clarity) or a wordy substitution (the latter driven by euphemistic intent, pedagogic intent, or sometimes loquaciousness alone). uncountable
- 4 a style that involves indirect ways of expressing things wordnet
- 5 A roundabout or indirect way of speaking; thus:; Necessary use of a phrase to circumvent either a vocabulary fault (of speaker or listener) or a lexical gap, either monolingually or in translation. uncountable
"A technical word, such as hyperkalemia or hypoallergenic, can be glossed for general audiences with a circumlocution, such as "high potassium level" or "less likely to cause allergies" (respectively)."
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- 6 An instance of such usage; a roundabout expression, whether an inadvisable one or a necessary one. countable
Etymology
From Latin circumlocūtiō (“the act of speaking around; circumlocution, periphrasis”). By surface analysis, circum- (“around”) + locution (“talk”), thus "getting around (a problem) in speaking or writing". Probably a calque of Ancient Greek περίφρασις (períphrasis, “periphrasis”).
See also for "circumlocution"
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