periodusn.

c1475 Court of Sapience (Trin. Cambr.) (1927) 1911 Dystinccion she [sc. Dame Rhetoric] gan clare and discuss, Whyche ys coma, colon, periodus.

1533 T. More Apologye xiv. 103 b A very colde skuse to a man lerned that wyll way the hole periodus togyther.

1589 G. Puttenham Arte Eng. Poesie ii. iv. 61 The third they called periodus, for a complement or full pause, and as a resting place and perfection of so much former speach as had bene vttered.

1952 P. Clemoes Liturg. Infl. on Punctuation in Late Old Eng. & Early Middle Eng. MSS 5 Punctus versus, a symbol consisting of the Punctum. It denoted the cadence with which a Periodus ended.

1957 Rev. Eng. Stud. 8 5 Ælfric is at the very beginning of the English tradition; yet the division of his text into periodi is prevailingly grammatical.

1972 A. Scaglione Classical Theory Composition 31 Syntactically speaking, the transformation of an oratio perpetua into a periodus is essentially a matter of subordinating the logically or factually secondary.