circumlocutio

Forms

circumlocūtiō f (genitive circumlocūtiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a calque from Ancient Greek περίφρασις (períphrasis), formed with circum “around” and locūtiō (“speaking”).^[2][3][4] Wiktionary derives it from circumloquor (“to speak around”) with the suffix -tiō.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Quintilian (c. 35–95/96 AD) gives it as the Latin name of Greek periphrasis, the expression at length and with ornament of what could be said more briefly, and finds the name ill suited to a virtue of style.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Gellius says Sallust used a poetic circumlocution, and Apuleius and Ammianus use it of roundabout or muddled wording.^[3] The grammarians define it: Diomedes as a description of a thing with a longer compass of words, and Donatus as a figure used either to adorn something fine or to avoid naming something foul.^[3] Isidore of Seville names the same figure circumloquium.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it as the Latin term for periphrasis.^[3][6][5]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of Sallust's style.^[6][3][5]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus mocks advocates full of muddled circumlocutions.^[3][5]
• c. 1400 – English borrows it as circumlocution.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (rhetoric) Periphrasis, circumlocution.^[2][6]
2. Roundabout or evasive wording.^[3]

Related words

• circumloquor
• English circumlocution

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press