Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun rhetoric
epistrophe - noun medicine excessive
tear production usually a result from anirritation of the eye - noun botany Polystachya (a genus of orchids)
Etymologies
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Examples
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• Clinical symptoms may include severe light sensitivity, epiphora, pain, floaters, loss of vision, and redness of the eye.
Recently Uploaded Slideshows Healthoscope 2009
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At about the point I read about epiphora, however, my eyes began to water -- in the act of complaining about "inconsistencies and inaccuracies," Mr.McC. is contributing several more inconsistencies to the pages of VERBATIM.
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The OED's example is from a seventeenth-century dictionary, whose explanation of epiphora closely parallels the Rev. Peacham's as Mr. Espy quotes it on p. 178.
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Further, Espy speaks about epiphora on pages 174 and 205 as a rhetorical device containing the same word or phrase at the end of successive clauses.
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So far, so good -- although the OED's second definition, labeled Rhet., suggests that at least in the past epiphora did mean "a rhetorical device containing the same word or phrase at the end of successive clauses" (if I may quote from Mr.McC. 's letter again).
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But Webster's Third defines epiphora as a watering of the eyes while defining epistrophe as the "repetition of the same word or expression at the end of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences ..."
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I confirm that Webster's Third defines epiphora as "watering of the eyes," a definition reassuringly similar to the first definition the OED gives for the same term.
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A gaffe that seems far more unfortunate involves Mr.McC. 's rigid distinction between epiphora and epistrophe.
mialuthien commented on the word epiphora
See antistrophe.
July 23, 2008
avivamagnolia commented on the word epiphora
Epiphora is overflow of tears onto the face. A clinical sign or condition that constitutes insufficient tear film drainage from the eyes in that tears will drain down the face rather than through the nasolacrimal system.
January 17, 2009