polyptoton

English
WOTD – 8 May 2009

Etymology

Via Latin, from Ancient Greek πολύπτωτον (polúptōton), neuter of πολύπτωτος (polúptōtos, “having many cases”), from πολύς (polús, “many”) + πίπτω (píptō, “I fall”).

Pronunciation
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˌpɑ.ləpˈtoʊ.tɑn/
  • Audio (US)(file)

Noun

polyptoton (countable and uncountable, plural polyptota or polyptotons)

Examples (rhetoric)

William Shakespeare, Richard II (c. 1595)
With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder.

  1. (rhetoric) A stylistic scheme in which words from the same root are used together, or a word is repeated in a different inflection or case.
    Hypernym: ploce
    • 1835, L[arret] Langley, A Manual of the Figures of Rhetoric, […], Doncaster: Printed by C. White, Baxter-Gate, →OCLC, page 84:
      A Polyptoton still the same word places,
      If sense require it, in two different cases.

Translations

See also
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