euphuist
Definitions
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- noun One who uses the euphuistic style; one who affects excessive elegance and refinement of language: applied particularly to a class of writers in the age of Queen Elizabeth, at the head of which stood John Lyly.
Examples
-
The essential requirement is to remember that Lyly the dramatist is the same man as Lyly the euphuist, and that his audience was always a company of courtiers, with Queen Elizabeth in their midst, infatuated with admiration for the new phraseology and mode of thought known as Euphuism.
-
As a modern euphuist has taught us, of all poses the natural pose is the most irritating.
-
Because his phraseology was colorless, he has become a stainer of phrases, a sort of musical euphuist.
Musical Portraits Interpretations of Twenty Modern Composers
Note
The word 'euphuist' comes from Euphues, a character in Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit and Euphues and his England by John Lyly, from Greek euphuēs, meaning 'shapely'.
