"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."
Sunday, 10 November 2013
Epizeuxis
In linguistics, an epizeuxis is the repetition of words in immediate succession, for vehemence or emphasis. Damn, damn, damn - that's another word I need in my vocabulary and will probably forget.
My daughter Helen commented in November 2008 in her Blog that she was now keeping a notebook of new words that she came across during her reading. "This week I bought a lovely little leather bound book to write new words in as I read them . I've added a few from "1984", but my favourite has to be persiflage (from the French persifler) which means banter." I later discovered that my older daughter, Bryony, also kept a similar notebook.
This inspired me to create a Word blog. This will include both new words, favourite words and the origins of phrases that we commonly use. A definition and some comment, perhaps even a relevant quotation, will acompany the word or phrase.
“I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words bother me.” - Winnie the Pooh
New to me, this one. I wonder how long I will remember it.
ReplyDeleteSo it's an epizeuxis when i ask for permission to say a bad word, and then, with permission, yell "bad word, bad word, bad word"!
ReplyDeleteKinda like words, words, words...
ReplyDelete