Periphrasis

-- Some Languages have Technical Words to express certain Collections of Ideas, that cannot be expressed, in another, without a Periphrasis.

John Adams diary, June 1753 - April 1754, September 1758 - January 1759 1966

[Sidenote: Periphrasis.] _Circuicio_, is a larger descripcion eyther to garnyshe it, or if it bee foule to hyde it, or if it be bryefe to make it more playn: by etimology, by sygnes, by definicion.

A Treatise of Schemes and Tropes Richard Sherry

[Sidenote: _Periphrasis_, or the Figure of ambage.]

The Arte of English Poesie George Puttenham

Then haue ye the figure _Periphrasis_, holding somewhat of the disembler, by reason of a secret intent not appearing by the words, as when we go about the bush, and will not in one or a few words expresse that thing which we desire to haue knowen, but do chose rather to do it by many words, as we our selues wrote of our Soueraigne Lady thus:

The Arte of English Poesie George Puttenham

For so much as this syllable sounded so unpleasantly in their eares, and this voice seemed so illboding and unluckie, the Romans had learned to allay and dilate the same by a Periphrasis.

That to Philosophise Is to Learne How to Die. 1909

Then haue ye the figure Periphrasis, holding somewhat of the dissembler, by reason of a secret intent not appearing by the words, as when we go about the bush, and will not in one or a few words expresse that thing which we desire to haue knowen, but do chose rather to do it by many words, as we our selues wrote of our Soueraigne Lady thus:

The Arte of English Poesie 1569

Then is it not by Epitheton or figure of Attribution but by the figures Antonomasia, or Periphrasis.

The Arte of English Poesie 1569

For so much as this syllable sounded so unpleasantly in their eares, and this voice seemed so ill boding and unluckie, the Romans had learned to allay and dilate the same by a Periphrasis.

Literary and Philosophical Essays: French, German and Italian Various 1562

"It passeth for the _Periphrasis_ of a fool, and an hundred fopperies are feigned and fathered on the townsfolk of _Gotham_, a village in this county [Nottinghamshire].

Notes and Queries, Number 61, December 28, 1850 Various

Stouping Phaebus) Is a Periphrasis of the sunne setting.

Shepheardes Calendar 1579