circumlocution
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\n \n Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 17, 2024 is:\n \n
\n \n\n circumlocution • \\ser-kum-loh-KYOO-shun\\ • noun
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Circumlocution refers to the use of many words to say something that could be said more clearly and directly with fewer words. Usually encountered in formal speech and writing, circumlocution can also refer to speech that is intentionally evasive.
\n\n// The judge coughed and pointed to her watch, clearly impatient with the attorney's tiresome circumlocutions in defense of his client.
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\u201cThe slight stiltedness of her \u2026 English merges with the circumlocution of business-school lingo to produce phrases like \u2018the most important aspect is to embrace a learning mind-set\u2019 and \u2018I believe we\u2019re going to move forward in a positive way.\u2019\u201d \u2014 Noam Scheiber, The New York Times, 1 Oct. 2023
\n \n \n\n Did you know?
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In The King\u2019s English (1906), lexicographers H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler advised, \u201cPrefer the single word to the circumlocution.\u201d It\u2019s good advice: using more words than necessary to convey a point can confuse and annoy one\u2019s audience. Circumlocution itself combines two Latin elements: the prefix circum-, meaning \u201caround,\u201d and locutio, meaning \u201cspeech.\u201d In essence, circumlocution may be thought of as \u201croundabout speech.\u201d Since at least the early 16th century, English writers have used circumlocution with disdain, naming a thing to stop, or better yet, to avoid altogether. Charles Dickens used the word to satirize political runarounds in the 1857 novel Little Dorrit with the creation of the fictional Circumlocution Office, a government department that delayed the dissemination of information and just about everything else.
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