Figures of Speech Flashcards
omission of conjunctions to emphasize rapidity
Asyndeton
a double negative as an understatement
Litotes (“Well, you’re not a bad runner”)
the deliberate reversal of word order to emphasize the words placed earlier
Anastrophe
a form of interlocked words that follows the pattern ABCBA
Golden Line (commonly used by Ovid)
repetition of a word
Anaphora (typically used by Vergil and Cicero)
speaking of something future as already completed
Prolepsis
juxtaposition of contradictory words used in the same phrase
Oxymoron (“Festina lente”)
pretending to be someone else for dramatic effect
Prosopopoeia (most famously used by Cicero)
corresponding pairs being inverted, following ABBA pattern
Chiasmus (e.g. noun-adjective-adjective-noun)
three parallel descriptions that increase in length
Tricolon Crescens (commonly used by Cicero)
a significant distortion of normal word order
Hyperbaton (“vasto rex Aeolus antro” Aeneid Book 1)
draws attention to an idea by pretending to pass over it
Praeteritio (used almost exclusively by Cicero)
using too many words, to the point of redundancy
Pleonasm (common in Vergil) (“Sic ora effata” Hecuba, Aeneid Book 2)
use of two nouns connected by a conjunction to mean one unified noun
Hendiadys (often uses et, atque, ac)
the use of one verb to describe two subjects in different ways
Zeugma (“If we don’t hang together, we shall hang separately.” -Benjamin Franklin)
repetition of a word, but in a different form
Polyptoton (often used by Catullus)
use of more conjunctions than is necessary
Polysyndeton
a variation of the usual word order in prose to interlock ideas
Synchesis (follows ABAB pattern)
the separation of parts of a compound word with intervening words
Tmesis (t-freakin-mesis)
the use of part to represent the whole
Synecdoche
reversal of normal sequence of events in order to put the more important idea, which would come later chronologically, first
Hysteron Proteron
building of suspense by postponing a significant word until the next line
Enjambment
use of one noun to represent another that is closely associated with it
Metonymy (e.g. using Ceres for grain or Bacchus for wine)
an abrupt break in a sentence, wherein the speaker is seemingly overwhelmed with emotion
Aposiopesis (“Quos ego” Neptune, Aeneid Book 1)
a digression that vividly describes a place, object, or event
Ecphrasis (see Aeneid: murals Temple of Juno, doors of Temple of Apollo, and Aeneas’s shield, and Catullus Poem 64: the bedspread)
