Meanings
plural rhetorolects
- A type of discourse that has a characteristic configuration of topics, themes, and arguments.
This Lukan discourse, then, directs the demons' identification of Jesus as the Son of God toward prophetic rhetorolect that features the coming of an anointed one who will oversee God's kingdom on earth.
2012, Duane F. Watson, Miracle Discourse in the New Testament, →ISBN, page 423 more examples
If the elaborations "catch on" in some way, and themselves become developed, it is likely that we are looking at the creation of a "rhetorolect," a configuration of topoi and their argumentation that "is generated through a process whereby widely recognized topoi are recontextualized and reconfigured to create conventions that support reasoning in new contexts."
2003, Vernon Kay Robbins, David B. Gowler, L. Gregory Bloomquist, Fabrics of Discourse: Essays in Honor of Vernon K. Robbins, →ISBN, page 175In other words, within each rhetorolect or language environment there are social places (like the household, the empire, nature) and cultural spaces (like God's world, the Diaspora, the kingdom) in which people think, speak, feel and act to construct meaningful lives.
2007, Robert L. Webb, John S. Kloppenborg, Reading James with New Eyes, →ISBNEarly Christian wisdom rhetorolect blends human experiences of the household, one's interpersonal body, and the geophysical world (firstspace) with the cultural space of God's cosmos (secondspace). In the lived space of blending (thirdspace), God functions as heavenly Father over God's children in the world, whose bodies are to produce goodness and righteousness through the medium of God's wisdom, which is understood as God's light in the world. In this context, wisdom rhetrolect emphasizes "fruitfulness" (productivity and reproductivity). The goal of wisdom rhetrolect is to create people who produce good action, thought, will, and speech with the aid of God's wisdom.
2007, Petri Luomanen, Ilkka Pyysiäinen, Risto Uro, Explaining Christian Origins and Early Judaism, →ISBN
Origin
- Latinlegō“to read”
- Latinlectus
- Ancient Greekῥήτωρ“public speaker”
- Latinrhētorica
- Englishrhetorolect
From Latin rhētorica from Ancient Greek ῥήτωρ (rhḗtōr, “public speaker”) + from Latin lectus, form of Latin legō (“to read”).
More words from Latin, Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
rhetorolect. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rhetorolect
“rhetorolect.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rhetorolect. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “rhetorolect,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rhetorolect.
Source: rhetorolect on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.