Polyptoton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Look up polyptoton in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Polyptoton is the stylistic scheme in which words derived from the same root are repeated (e.g. "strong" and "strength"). A related stylistic device is antanaclasis, in which the same word is repeated, but each time with a different sense.
[edit] Examples
- "The Greeks are strong, and skillful to their strength, Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant;" William Shakespeare Troilus and Cressida, I, i, 7-8
- "With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder." William Shakespeare Richard II II,i,37
- "Not as a call to battle, though embattled we are." John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961.
- "Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Franklin Delano Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, March 1933.
- "Thou art of blood, joy not to make things bleed." Sir Philip Sidney
- "We have been...treading trodden trails for a long, long time." Dave Matthews Band, So Much to Say, 1996
[edit] References
- Corbett, Edward P.J. Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student. Oxford University Press, New York, 1971.
