Rhetorical Terms, Figures of Speech, Metrical Devices

Question 1

Alliteration

Answer 1

the repetition of the same letter or sound, usually at the beginning of a series of words

Question 2

Anaphora

Answer 2

the repetition of a word or words at the beginning of successive clauses: Miratur molem Aeneas…/miratur portas (repetition of miratur)

Question 3

Anastrophe

Answer 3

the inversion of normal order of words: te proper (instead of propter te)

Question 4

Aposiopesis

Answer 4

a breaking off in the middle of a sentence, the syntax of which is never resumed (Greek for “a falling silent”)

Question 5

Apostrophe

Answer 5

the sudden break from the previous narrative for an address in the 2nd person of someone or something not present

Question 6

Asyndeton

Answer 6

the omission of conjunctions; nunc hos nunc accipit illos (no “et”’s)

Question 7

Ecphrasis

Answer 7

an extended and elaborate description of a work of art, a building, or a natural setting

Question 8

Ellipsis

Answer 8

the omission of one or more words which must be logically supplied in order to create a grammatically complete experssion (usually a form of sum)

Question 9

Enjambment

Answer 9

the continuation of a unit of though beyond the end of one verse line and into the first few feet of the next.

Question 10

Hendiadys

Answer 10

the expression of an idea by means of two nouns connected by a conjunction instead of by a noun and a modifying adjective, or by one noun modified by another

Question 11

Hyperbaton

Answer 11

the distanced placement of two or more words which are logically meant to be understood together.

Question 12

Hyperbole

Answer 12

exaggeration for rhetorical effect

Question 13

Hysteron proteron

Answer 13

the reversal of natural or logical order of ideas: submersas… obrue puppes: Juno instructs Aeolus to flood the Trojan ships after they have been sunk

Question 14

Litotes

Answer 14

understatement, often enhanced by the use of a negative

Question 15

Metonymy

Answer 15

the substitution of one word for anther which it suggests.

Question 16

Onomatopoeia

Answer 16

the use of words whose sound mimics their meaning

Question 17

Polysyndeton

Answer 17

an overabundance of conjunctions

Question 18

Prolepsis

Answer 18

the inclusion in the main story of references to events which in fact will occur after the dramatic time of the poem, and to the people and circumstances involved in these later events

Question 19

Simile

Answer 19

a figure of speach which likens or asserts an explicit comparison between two different things (introduced by words like: velut, qualis)

Question 20

Synchysis/Synchesis

Answer 20

interlocking word order: A B A B

Question 21

Synecdoche

Answer 21

the use of a part for the whole

Question 22

Tmesis

Answer 22

the separation into parts of a word normally written as one, often for a (quasi) visual effect

Question 23

Tricolon crescens

Answer 23

the accumulation of three parallel phrases or clauses, each of which is at least one syllable longer than that preceding