Circumlocution

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˌsɜːkəmləˈkjuːʃən/

Definitions

1. The use of many more expressions than necessary to convey an idea, often done to avoid directness or to achieve a particular rhetorical effect
2. A rhetorical technique involving unnecessarily indirect and verbose language that approaches a subject obliquely rather than addressing it straightforwardly
3. The practice of using excessively wordy language to express an idea indirectly, typically employed to evade a topic or enhance persuasion

Etymology: Ancient Greek had a word for this very habit: "períphrasis," literally "a speaking around," which the Romans borrowed and rendered in Latin as "circumlocutio." English took the Latin form, and the word's internal logic is transparent: "circum-" means "around" and "locution" means "talk," so a circumlocution is a way of getting round a subject rather than hitting it head-on. The Latin term was itself likely a calque, a word-for-word translation, of the Greek, so the English word is a translation of a translation. The idea behind the word is older than the word itself. A circumlocution is neither a lie nor a mistake; it is a deliberate detour, the sort of roundabout phrasing a speaker reaches for when the direct name of something is awkward, unpleasant, or unwise to say aloud. "Passed away" for "died" is a small everyday example of the same manoeuvre.

Synonyms: periphrasis, verbosity, roundabout way, evasion, digression

Antonyms: directness, succinctness, clarity, conciseness, straightforwardness