periphrastic

/,peri'fræstik/

Thân thiện

The professor's periphrastic explanation confused the students.

Definition

Adjective 1. Expressing a grammatical relationship using separate words instead of inflection: Describing a construction that uses a combination of auxiliary words (like prepositions or helping verbs) to convey a meaning that could also be expressed by a single inflected word. 2. Roundabout and unnecessarily wordy; circumlocutory: Using more words than necessary to express an idea; indirect in speech or writing.

Examples

• Grammatical Usage:
  • In English, the future tense is often periphrastic, formed with "will" or "going to" plus the base verb (e.g., "I will go"), unlike in some languages where it is a single verb form.
  • "The father of the child" is a periphrastic way of saying "the child's father."
• Stylistic Usage:
  • His periphrastic explanation of a simple concept confused everyone in the meeting.
  • The lawyer's periphrastic language seemed designed to obscure the facts rather than clarify them.

Advanced Usage

• Linguistics: In linguistic analysis, a construction contrasts with a synthetic one. For example, the English comparative "more beautiful" is , while the Latin form "pulchrior" is a synthetic, single-word inflection.
• Literary Criticism: A style can be a deliberate literary device to create a formal, elevated, or ironic tone, as noted in T.S. Eliot's critique of a "worn-out poetical fashion."

Variants and Related Words

• Periphrasis (n): The noun form meaning the use of expression; a roundabout way of speaking.
  • The essay was full of unnecessary periphrasis.
• Circumlocutory (adj): Synonymous with the stylistic sense of , meaning using many words where fewer would do.
• Ambagious (adj, archaic): An archaic synonym for roundabout or indirect in speech.

Synonyms

• Circumlocutory
• Prolix
• Verbose
• Indirect
• Roundabout

Antonyms

• Concise
• Succinct
• Direct
• Forthright
• Terse

Related Phrases and Idioms

• Beating around the bush: An idiomatic expression similar to the stylistic meaning of , meaning to avoid addressing a topic directly.
  • Stop being so periphrastic and tell me what you really think—stop beating around the bush.

Học thuật

Adjective

1. roundabout and unnecessarily wordy; (`ambagious' is archaic)
   • had a preference for circumlocutious (or circumlocutory) rather than forthright expression
   • A periphrastic study in a worn-out poetical fashion,/ Leaving one still with the intolerable wrestle/ With words and meanings.-T.S.Eliot

Từ đồng nghĩa

• circumlocutious
• circumlocutory
• ambagious