euphuism

plural euphuisms · alternative Euphuism

1. historicalrhetoricuncountableAn ornate style of writing (in Elizabethan England) marked by the excessive use of alliteration, antithesis and mythological similes.

   1 more example

   The second was a fancy, which amounts to a mania, for similes, strung together in endless lists[…]. It is impossible to open a page of Euphues without finding an example of this eccentric and tasteless trick, and in it, as far as in any single thing, must be found the recipe for euphuism, pure and simple.

   1887, George Saintsbury, “Early Elizabethan prose”, in A History of Elizabethan Literature

2. countableAn instance of euphuism.

   “Generalstaatsverordnetenversammlungen” seems to be “Generalstatesrepresentativesmeetings,” as nearly as I can get at it,—a mere rhythmical, gushy euphuism for “meetings of the legislature,” I judge.

   1880, Mark Twain [pseudonym] (Samuel L[anghorne] Clemens), “”, in A Tramp Abroad; […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company; London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 613

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   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.

   1844, Edgar Allan Poe, Marginalia

3. countablemisconstructionuncountableMisconstruction of euphemism.

   Is he one who has led a wild and struggling and isolated life,—seeing few but plain and outspoken Northerns, unskilled in the euphuisms which assist the polite world to skim over the mention of vice?

   1857, E[lizabeth] C[leghorn] Gaskell, The Life of Charlotte Brontë, […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, page 89

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   He became noisy and violent, so I desisted from this aspect of his lesson. “And then,” said I, “you committed the sin of euphuism. You called it not Fat, which is just and inglorious, but Weight. You—”

   1927 September, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “[Twelve Stories and a Dream.] The Truth about Pyecraft.”, in The Short Stories of H. G. Wells, London: Ernest Benn Limited […], →OCLC, page 978

plural Euphuisms

1. countableuncountableAlternative letter-case form of euphuism.

   Modern eyes see less of the wit than of the dregs in the works of [Robert] Greene and his compeers; but the attacks which [Thomas] Nash directed against the Puritans and his rivals were the first English works which shook utterly off the pedantry and extravagance of Euphuism.

   1874, J[ohn] R[ichard] Green, “The England of Elizabeth”, in A Short History of the English People. […], London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, chapter VII (The Reformation), page 393

   2 more examples

   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.

   1844, Edgar Allan Poe, Marginalia

   [I]t differs radically from [John] Lyly’s Euphuism in the employment of arguments from the “topics” as proof rather than as mere amplification, in the much less frequent use of figures of sound or of word (like alliteration, assonance, similiter cadens or similar sounding terminations), and in the relative freedom from ornamentation for its own sake, […]

   1954, Madeleine Doran, “Critical Emphasis”, in Endeavors of Art: A Study of Form in Elizabethan Drama, Madison, Wis.: The University of Wisconsin Press, published 1963 (2nd printing), →OCLC, chapter 3 (Verisimilitude), “Art vs. Nature” section, pages 65–66