Euphuism describes an elegant yet artificial literary style featuring excessive balance, alliteration, and mythological allusions, named after the character Euphues from John Lyly's works.
Euphuism is an elegant but artificial literary style characterized by excessive balance, alliteration, and mythological references, named after John Lyly's character Euphues.
| Word | euphuism |
|---|---|
| Date | June 27, 2008 |
| Type | noun |
| Syllables | YOO-fyuh-wiz-um |
| Etymology | Nowadays, someone who uses euphuism might be accused of linguistic excess and affectation, but "euphuism" hasn't always had a negative connotation. When John Lyly employed this verbose form of rhetoric in his prose works Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (1578) and Euphues and His England (1580), it was a style that appealed to many of his contemporaries. "Euphuism" comes from the name of the character Euphues, whom Lyly described as a "young gallante, of more wit then wealth, and yet of more wealth then wisdome." The name was probably inspired by a Greek word meaning "witty." The term "euphuism" came into being to refer to Lyly's (and other writers') style a dozen or so years after his works appeared. |
| Examples | Cora, given to euphuism, exclaimed, "Oh, glorious auroral orb!" and Paul agreed, "Yeah, nice sunrise." |
| Definition | 1 : an elegant Elizabethan literary style marked by excessive use of balance, antithesis, and alliteration and by frequent use of similes drawn from mythology and nature 2 : artificial elegance of language |
Tags: wordoftheday::noun
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