Epanorthosis

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An epanorthosis is a figure of speech that signifies emphatic word replacement.^[1] The example "thousands, no, millions!" is a stock example. More often, however, epanorthosis signifies immediate and emphatic self-correction, and as such often follows a Freudian slip (either accidental or deliberate).

Examples:

• "The psychologist known as Sigmund Fraud—Freud, I mean!"
• "I've been doing this for six weeks!—er, days, that is."
• "Man has parted company with his trusty friend the horse and has sailed into the azure with the eagles, eagles being represented by the infernal combustion engine—er er, internal combustion engine. [loud laughter] Internal combustion engine! Engine!" – Winston Churchill^[2]

Here the words in italics are technically the epanorthoses, although all of the words following the dash may be considered part of the epanorthosis as well. Striking through words is another way of demonstrating the effect.

In Aviation English phraseology, the word "correction" must be explicitly used: "climb to reach Flight Level 290 at time 58 — correction at time 55".

A modern variant is the use of ^H to fake a backspace.

References