Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun rhetoric
Catachresis .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word abusio.
Examples
-
Magna abusio est os habere in choro et cor in foro.
-
Mélanges Théologiques (Liège, 1852-3, p. 453) quotes Lessius: "Si absque justa causa fiat, est abusio orationis contra virtutem veritatis, et civilem consuetudinem, etsi proprie non sit mendacium."
Apologia Pro Vita Sua John Henry Newman 1845
-
"Si absque justa causa fiat, est abusio orationis contra virtutem veritatis, et civilem consuetudinem, etsi proprie non sit mendacium."
Apologia pro Vita Sua John Henry Newman 1845
-
Power Writing is basically an encyclopedic dictionary of rhetorical tools, from abusio to zeugma: it contains clear definitions of all devices and gives many citations of examples of each.
-
Rhetorical catachresis – ‘abuse or perversion of a trope or metaphor’ – is perhaps more precisely called abusio (hat tip to Language Log), but if we allow the looser definition it is typified by Shakespeare’s ‘To take arms against a sea of troubles’.
Catachresis and the amusing, awful and artificial cathedral 2009
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.