Word of the Day: PERIPHRASTIC

Many words when few will do

periphrastic (adj) - marked by an unnecessarily convoluted, wordy, or roundabout manner of speaking; circumlocutory [per-uh-fras-tik]

BREAKDOWN: PERI- (around) + PHRAS- (way of speaking) + -TIC (pertaining to)

periphrasis is a process, product, or example of indirect and wordy communication

“A word-for-word translation from one language to another obscures the sense and as it were chokes the wheat with luxuriant grass. For in slavishly following cases and constructions, the language scarcely explains by lengthy periphrasis what it might state by concise expression… Let others try to catch syllables and letters; you seek the meaning.” ―Evagrius