periphrastic

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“
As poetry it does not measure up to Aasen; as translation it is periphrastic, arbitrary, not at all faithful F The translations which we have thus far considered were mere fragments--brief soliloquies or a single sonnet, and they were done into a dialect which was not then and is not now the prevailing literary language of the country.

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Definitions (4)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. adjective Having the nature of or characterized by periphrasis.
  2. adjective Grammar Constructed by using an auxiliary word rather than an inflected form; for example, of father is the periphrastic possessive case of father but father's is the inflected possessive case, and did say is the periphrastic past tense of say but said is the inflected past tense.

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Examples (50)

  • It's a periphrastic way of improving your company's image at best. —  Max Barry
  • As poetry it does not measure up to Aasen; as translation it is periphrastic, arbitrary, not at all faithful F The translations which we have thus far considered were mere fragments--brief soliloquies or a single sonnet, and they were done into a dialect which was not then and is not now the prevailing literary language of the country. —  An Essay Toward a History of Shakespeare in Norway
  • All of this is a periphrastic way of coming to what I had heard sung in the refrain to "The Hook" for many years. —  AMERICAN DIGEST
  • By a periphrastic version of the general text. —  Ulysses
  • [36] Respecting the special meaning of this periphrastic conjugation, see Zumpt, S 498. —  C. Sallusti Crispi De Bello Catilinario Et Jugurthino
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Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (1)

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. = French périphrastique = Portuguese periphrastico, from Middle Greek περιφραστικός, from Greek περιφράζειν, express in a roundabout manner (later περίφρασις, circumlocution): see periphrasis.
 

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/pɛrɪˈfræstɪk/
by American Heritage

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