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Definition |
Example |
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malapropism |
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An act or habit of misusing words ridiculously, especially by the confusion of words that are similar in sound. An instance of malapropism, as in Lead the way and we'll precede you.
Stems from the word malapropos, which means inappropriate or out of place. |
Examples: This event is unparalyzed in the state's history; She's as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the nile.
The later malapropism is a quote from Mrs. Malaprop, a character in Richard Sheridan's comedic play, The Rivals, who continuoulsy spouts malapropisms as though they were going out of style. The character of Mrs. Malaprop is the origin of the term malapropsim in the English language. |
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prolepses |
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The assigning of a person, event, etc., to a period earlier than the actual one; the representation of something in the future as if it already existed or had occurred; prochronism.
(From linguistics). The use of a descriptive word in anticipation of its becoming applicable. |
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parachronism |
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A chronological error in which a person, event, or the like is assigned a date later than the actual one.
See anachronism, prochronism, prolepsis. |
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series comma |
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A comma used after the next-to-last item in a series of three or more items when the next-to-last and last items are separated by a conjunction.
Also called serial comma.
The series comma is also known as the Oxford comma because it was traditionally used by printers, readers, and editors at Oxford University Press. It is also known as the Harvard comma because it is strongly advocated by the Harvard University Press.
Note: Opinions vary among writers and editors on the usage or avoidance of the serial comma. In American English the serial comma is standard in most non-journalistic writing, which typically follows the Chicago Manual of Style. Journalists, however, usually follow the Associated Press Style Guide, which advises against it. It is less often used in British English. |
In the series A, B, C, or D, the comma after the C is the series comma. |
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roundel (also rondel) |
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A modification of the rondeau, consisting of nine lines with two refrains. See: rondel; see: rondeau |
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thematic |
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Relating to works of literature in which no characters are involved except the author and his audience, as in most lyrics and essays, or to works of literature in which internal characters are subordinated to an argument maintained by the author, as in allegories and parables; opposed to fictional. |
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rondel |
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A short poem of fixed form, consisting usually of 14 lines on two rhymes, of which four are made up of the initial couplet repeated in the middle and at the end, with the second line of the couplet sometimes being omitted at the end.
Compare Shakespearean or English sonnet. |
Rondel of Merciless Beauty by Geoffrey Chaucer |
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prolepsis |
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The assigning of a person, event, or something else to a period earlier than the actual one; the representation of something in the future as if it already existed or had occurred.
See anachronism, parachronism, prochronism, prolepsis. |
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le grand guignol |
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A guignol is a big French marionette fashioned in the style of Lyon or a marionette theater where such puppets appear. By extension, a grand guignol is a ridiculous person who behaves like a clown or fool.
In literary parlance, a grande guignol is a short drama stressing horror and sensationalism, or any drama pertaining to or resembling such a drama. The term originated in the period 1905–1910. It stems from Le Grand Guignol, a small theater in Paris where such plays were performed.
Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol (The Theater of the Big Puppet) was located in the Pigalle area of Paris. It specialized in naturalistic horror shows from 1872 to 1962, when it closed.
The name is often used as a general term for any graphic, lurid, amoral horror entertainment that resembles a type of violent, gruesome dramatization that was popular in Jacobean and Elizabethan plays. |
Examples are Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, and Marlowe's Tamburlaine.
Genres resembling these plays have made a comeback in today's so-called splatter films, which are films containing many gratuitous and shocking murders, and in snuff films, a kind of pornographic film that shows an actual murder of one of the performers, as might take place at the end of a sadistic act. |
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prequel |
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Like a sequel, but where the story takes place at an earlier time than in the previous work. |
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prochronism |
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A chronological error in which a person, event, or the like is assigned a date earlier than the actual one.
See anachronism, parachronism, prolepsis. |
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meiosis |
figurative language |
Belittlement. An expressive understatement, sometimes ironical or humorous, and intended to emphasize the size, or importance of what is belittled.
See: litotes. |
"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." Said by Mark Twain. |
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hyperbole |
figurative language |
A boldly exaggerated statement that adds emphasis without intending to be literally true; an overstatement.
See: litotes |
"Here once the embattled farmers stood / And fired the shot heard round the world." from Concord Hymn by Ralph Waldo Emerson |
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synesthesia |
figurative language |
A passage in which one kind of sensation is described in terms of another. |
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zeugma |
figurative language |
A figure of speech in which one verb governs several words, or clauses, each in a different sense. |
"She looked at the object with suspicion and a magnifying glass." Charles Dickens. |
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prosopopoeia |
figurative language |
Personification of inanimate things. Also, a figure of speech in which an imaginary, absent, or deceased person is represented as speaking or acting.
Also spelled prosopopeia. From the Greek term for "personification." |
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synecdoche |
figurative language |
A figure of speech in which a part is used to designate the whole or the whole is used to designate a part. |
In the line, "A poor torn heart, a tattered heart, That sat it down to rest," by Emily Dickinson, Poem XLIX, the heart represents the whole person. |
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imagery |
figurative language |
A phrase used to create a mental image through the use of the five senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch) in order to produce a vivid picture in the reader's mind. |
The first two stanzas of Daffodils by Wordsworth. |
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paradox |
figurative language |
A statement that seems to be self-contradictory, yet has meaning that may provoke a new understanding. |
"Death, thou shalt die." from Death Be Not Proud by John Donne |
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pun |
figurative language |
A play on words that are identical or similar in sound but have different meanings. |
The dying Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet calls himself "a grave man." |
