| 释义 |
circumlocution|ˌsɜːkəmləʊˈkjuːʃən|
Also 6 -locucion, -loqution, -loquution.
[a. F. circonlocution, or ad. L. circumlocūtiōn-em, f. circum- + loqui to speak.]
Speaking in a roundabout or indirect way; the use of several words instead of one, or many instead of few. Formerly used of grammatical periphrasis; but now only of rhetorical.
Circumlocution Office: a satirical name applied, by Dickens, to Government Offices, on account of the circuitous formality by which they delay the giving of information, etc.
c1510Barclay Mirr. Good Mann. (1570) F vj, When thou must in speche touche..Such maners vnclenly, vse circumlocution. 1530Palsgr. 112 Where we use circumlocution, the frenchemen have one onely worde. 1553T. Wilson Rhet. 93 b, Circumlocution is a large description either to sette forth a thyng more gorgeouslie, or else to hyde it. 1595A. Day Eng. Secretary ii. (1625) 84 When by circumloquution anything is expressed, as when we say: The Prince of Peripateticks, for Aristotle. 1626Cockeram, Circumlocution, A speaking of many words when few may suffice: a long circumstance. 1713Addison Ct. Tariff, He affirms everything roundly without any art or circumlocution. 1823Scott Peveril xii, After much circumlocution, and many efforts to give an air of importance to what he had to communicate. 1855Dickens Dorrit i. x, The Circumlocution Office was (as everybody knows without being told) the most important Department under Government. ibid., Whatever was required to be done, the Circumlocution Office was beforehand with all the public departments in the art of perceiving—How not to do it.
b. A phrase or sentence in which circumlocution is used; a roundabout expression.
1533Tindale Supper of Lord 42 Going about the bush with this exposition and circumlocution. 1662Fuller Worthies (1840) II. 452 In his pleadings..he declined all circumlocutions. 1791Mackintosh Vind. Gall. Wks. 1846 III. 83 The courtly circumlocution by which Mr. Burke designates the Bastille—‘the King's castle at Paris!’ 1854Kingsley Lett. (1878) I. 417 Courtesies and Circumlocutions are out of place, where the morals, health, lives of thousands are at stake.
So circumloˈcutional, circumloˈcutionary, adjs., pertaining to, or given to, circumlocution. circumloˈcutionist, one who employs circumlocution. circumloˈcutious a., given to circumlocution; whence circumloˈcutiousness.
1865Dickens Mut. Fr. II. 308, I have found circumlocutional champions disposed to be warm with me. 1863Scotsman 16 Apr., An immense exercise of circumlocutionary skill. 1877Wallace Russia xxx. 500 The flowery circumlocutionary style of an Oriental scribe. 1846Worcester Circumlocutionist, citing Gent. Mag. 1855Dickens Dorrit i. xxxiv, This able circumlocutionist. 1827R. Hill in Sidney Life (1834) 213 O the dulness, the circumlocutiousness, the conceit, the tautology. |