Rhetorical Devices

Front 1

alliteration: lepidum novum libellum

Back 1

repetiton of the same sound beginning several words in sequence.

Front 2

anacoluthon: ut nostrum insidiis caput lacessas, a tum te miserum malique fati!

Back 2

lack of grammatical sequence; a change in the grammatical construction within the same sentence

Front 3

anaphora

Back 3

the rhetorical repetition of a word or phrase for greater emphasis.

Front 4

anastrophe

Back 4

transposition of normal word order; most often found in Latin in the case of prepositions and the words they control.

Front 5

antistrophe

Back 5

repetition of the same word or phrase at the end of successive clauses.

Front 6

antithesis: for while they were fighting at full pitch, I was running at full tilt

Back 6

opposition, or contrast of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction.

Front 7

apo koinou

Back 7

two constructions depending "on a common [word]" in a compressed phrase where a single word has a double syntactic function.

Front 8

apostrophe: o factum male! o miselle passer!

Back 8

a sudden turn from the general audience to address a specific group or person or personified abstraction absent or present.

Front 9

archaism: "Qui?.."

Back 9

the use of an old-fashioned word or expression to give a traditional feeling.

Front 10

assonance: lepidum novum libellum

Back 10

repetition of the same sound in words close to each other

Front 11

asyndeton

Back 11

lack of conjunctions between coordinate phrases, clauses, or words.

Front 12

chiasmus: Aureli pathice et cinaede Furi

Back 12

two corresponding pairs arranged not in parallels but in inverted order (a-b-b-a).

Front 13

conceit: associate with Poem 3, Lament For a Sparrow

Back 13

an elaborate or far-fetched idea.

Front 14

ellipse

Back 14

omission of a word that can be understood from context (often with esse).

Front 15

enjambment: si tecum attuleris bonam atque magnam cenam

Back 15

the running on of phrasing from on line to the next, particularly where the words separated by line ending are closely connected.

Front 16

golden line

Back 16

the five-word line arranged adjective, adjective, verb, noun, noun

Front 17

hapax legomenon

Back 17

only occurence of word in preserved Latin literature

Front 18

hendiadys

Back 18

use of two words connected by a conjunction, instead of subordinating one to the other, to express a single complex idea.

Front 19

homoioteleuton: lepidum novum libellum

Back 19

a recurrence of similar endings in successive words

Front 20

hyperbaton: desideratoque acquiescimus lecto?

Back 20

separation of words which belong together, often to emphasize the first of the separated words or to create a certain image

Front 21

hyperbole: da mi basia mille, deinde centum...

Back 21

exaggeration for emphasis or for rhetorical effect

Front 22

litotes: non sine candida puella

Back 22

understatemen, usually by way of a double negative

Front 23

meiosis: meas...nugas

Back 23

(oppositie of hyperbole) rhetorical understatement calculated to make a thing seem greater than it is by making light of it.

Front 24

metonymy:...pillatis nona fratribus pila...

Back 24

substitution of one word for another it suggests

Front 25

onomatopoeia: pipiabat

Back 25

use of words to imitate natural sounds

Front 26

personification: meminit fides

Back 26

attribution of personality to an impersonal thing

Front 27

pleonasm: quam te libenter quamque laetus inviso

Back 27

use of more words than necessary, repetition of the same idea in different words

Front 28

polyptoton: quicum lidere, quem in sinu tenere, cui primum digitum dare

Back 28

repetition of the same word or of words from the same root but different endings

Front 29

polysendeton

Back 29

the repetition of conjunctions in a series of coordinate words, phrases, or clauses

Front 30

simile

Back 30

an explicit comparison between two things using 'like' or 'as'

Front 31

synchysis: quicum ludere, quem in sinu tenere

Back 31

interlocked word order

Front 32

syncope

Back 32

the abbreviation of a word, usually a verb, for the sake of metrical economy

Front 33

synecdoche: penetrabit Indos

Back 33

understanding one thing with another; the use of a part for the whole or the whole for the part.

Front 34

transferred epithet

Back 34

grammatical agreement of a word with another word which it does not logically qualify

Front 35

tricolon crescendo: Lugete, o Veneres...deliciae meae puellae

Back 35

a rhetorical contruction in which each "leg" of a period is longer than the one preceding it.