Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In rhetoric, a figure of speech consisting in the use of a question or questions for oratorical purposes, as, for instance, to imply a negative, as in the following quotation. Also called
eperotesis and epitrochasmus. Seequestion .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Rhet.) A figure of speech by which a strong affirmation of the contrary, is implied under the form of an earnest interrogation, as in the following lines;
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun rhetoric A figure of speech whereby a
question is asked in confident expectation of a negative answer.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Late Latin erotesis, from Ancient Greek ἐρώτησις (erōtēsis), from ἐρωτάω (erōtaō, "I question").
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Examples
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He would break off in the midst of one of his frequent disputes on the subject of names, and “in a spirited epiphonema, or rather erotesis,” demand of his antagonist “whether he would take upon him to say he had ever remembered, whether he had ever read, or whether he had ever heard tell of a man called Tristram performing anything great or worth recording.
Sterne Traill, H D 1882
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One particular type of rhetorical question favored by Homer is erotesis, a question implying strong affirmation or denial: "Donuts.
About Today 2008
whichbe commented on the word erotesis
A rhetorical question.
May 20, 2008