euphuism
English edit
Etymology edit
From John Lyly's didactic romance Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (1578), + -ism.
Noun edit
euphuism (countable and uncountable, plural euphuisms)
- (uncountable) An ornate style of writing (in Elizabethan England) marked by the excessive use of alliteration, antithesis and mythological similes.
- An instance of euphuism.
- 1844, Edgar Allan Poe, Marginalia:
- I have not the slightest faith in Carlyle. In ten years–possibly in five–he will be remembered only as a butt for sarcasm. His linguistic Euphuisms might very well have been taken as prima facie evidence of his philosophic ones; they were the froth which indicated, first, the shallowness, and secondly, the confusion of the waters.