Dictionary

circumlocution en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˌsɜːkəmləˈkjuːʃən/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˌsɝkəmləˈkjuʃən/ (General-American)

Etymology

From Latin circumlocūtiō (“the act of speaking around; circumlocution, periphrasis”). By surface analysis, circum- (“around”) + locution (“talk”), thus "getting around (a problem) in speaking or writing". Probably a calque of Ancient Greek περίφρασις (períphrasis, “periphrasis”).

Meanings

1. (uncountable) A roundabout or indirect way of speaking; thus
   • Circumlocution is a large deſcription either to ſette forth a thyng more gorgiouſlie, or els to hyde it, if the eares cannot beare the open ſpeakyng: or when with fewe woordes we cannot open our meanyng, to ſpeake it more largely. 1553, Thomas Wilson, The Arte of Rhetorique […] , page 198:
   • His Majeſty leaves the choice to your ſelf, and requires from you a direct Anſwer without circumlocution or bargaining with him […] 1618, John Rushworth, Historical Collections of Private Passages of State.; Weight Matters in Law.; Remarkable Proceedings in Five Parliaments […] , London: Robert Boulter, page 238:
2. (uncountable) A roundabout or indirect way of speaking; thus: ▸ Unnecessary use of extra words to express an idea, such as a pleonastic phrase (sometimes driven by an attempt at emphatic clarity) or a wordy substitution (the latter driven by euphemistic intent, pedagogic intent, or sometimes loquaciousness alone).
3. (uncountable) A roundabout or indirect way of speaking; thus: ▸ Necessary use of a phrase to circumvent either a vocabulary fault (of speaker or listener) or a lexical gap, either monolingually or in translation.
   • It may seem quite straightforward to render line 15 metrically regular by means of a grammatical trick: "the style as bright as soul". However, the stylistic feature of the adjectival compound does not occur in isolation but is employed again in the following line, "dem Staubfaden himmelswüst", where a grammatical circumlocution in translation would be metrically disadvantageous. Both compounds, "seelenhell" as well as "himmelswüst", should therefore be translated as compounds. When Michael Hamburger remarks that German "lends itself to the formation of compound words in a way that English does not" (in Celan 1988: 24), he probably refers to nouns such as "Türspalt" or "Algenteilchen". 1997, Hansjörg Bittner, The Metrical Structure of Free Verse (PhD Thesis), retrieved 21 Apr 2021:
   • A technical word, such as hyperkalemia or hypoallergenic, can be glossed for general audiences with a circumlocution, such as "high potassium level" or "less likely to cause allergies" (respectively).
   • Linguistic horror vacui again, and lacuna: the blank part of a manuscript where the ink runs off the papyrus, and lexically the word missing from one language that must be bridged with circumlocution in translation. 2010, Rebecca A. Giggs, The Rise of the Edge: New Thresholds of the Ecological Uncanny, and Inside Albatrosses (Fictions for Strange Weather) (PhD Thesis), retrieved 21 Apr 2021:
4. (countable) An instance of such usage; a roundabout expression, whether an inadvisable one or a necessary one.

Forms

Deriveds

circumlocutionize · circumlocutory · circumlocutious · circumlocutionist · circumlocutionary · circumlocution office · circumlocutional

Relateds

beat around the bush · hedge · equivocation · pleonasm · mince words · mince matters · waffle · evasive · go around the houses · prevarication · euphemism

Synonyms

periphrasis · ambages

Translations (43)

pt circunlocução (roundabout expression) · fi pyörittely (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · pt circunlocução (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · es circunlocución (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · fr périphrase (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · cs opis (roundabout expression) · el πολυλογία (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · vi giải ngữ (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · bg иносказание (roundabout expression) · es rodeos (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · pl oględna wypowiedź (roundabout expression) · pt circunlóquio (roundabout expression) · el περίφραση (roundabout expression) · de Umschweife (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · vi ngữ giải thích (roundabout expression) · no omsvøp (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · fr circonlocution (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · sv omsvep (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · fi jaarittelu (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · hu körülírás (roundabout expression) · vi giải ngữ (roundabout expression) · fa اطناب (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · it perifrasi (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · bg увъртане (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · hu kertelés (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · es circunloquio (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · ar إطْنَاب (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · sv omskrivning (roundabout expression) · fi kiertely (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · it giro di parole (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · es ambages (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · fi kiertoilmaus (roundabout expression) · el περίφραση (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · cy cylchymadrodd (roundabout expression) · es circunlocución (roundabout expression) · pt circunlóquio (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · bg заобикалки (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · vi ngữ giải thích (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · pl oględna wypowiedź (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · fa درازگویی (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · hu köntörfalazás (roundabout or indirect way of speaking) · it circonlocuzione (roundabout expression) · la circumlocūtiō (roundabout expression)