Erotocism

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Sexual excitement or an erotic quality that stimulates desire in a person or work of art
2. The condition of being sexually aroused, or the erotic character that provokes such feelings
3. Heightened sensual desire, or the suggestive quality in art, writing, or behavior that arouses it

Etymology: Ancient Greek rhetoric had a name for a question asked not to get an answer but to make a point: "erotesis," from "erotan," meaning "to ask." Erotocism is a variant of that term, built on the same Greek verb, and it names the figure in which a speaker poses a question whose answer the audience is expected to supply in the speaker's favour. The figure is defined by what it withholds. An ordinary question invites a reply, but the rhetorical version makes the reply so obvious that the question works as an assertion in interrogative form. Latin writers on rhetoric rendered the Greek idea as "interrogatio," so the same notion passed into the Roman tradition under a different name.