systrophe

Figure Name systrophe
Source Silva Rhetoricae (http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Silva.htm); Peacham 1593
Earliest Source None
Synonyms conglobatio, convolutio
Etymology Gk. syn, "together" and strophe, "turning"
Type Trope
Linguistic Domain Semantic
Definition

1. The listing of many qualities or descriptions of someone or something, without providing an explicit definition. (Silva Rhetoricae)

2. Systrophe of some called Conglobatio, of other convolutio, and it is when the Orator bringeth in many definitions of one thing, yet not such definitions as do declare the substance of a thing by the general kind, and the difference, which the art of reasoning doth prescribe, but others of another kind all heaped together. (Peacham)

Example

1. What [a] piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving, how express and admirable in action, how like an angel in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world; the paragon of animals; and yet to me what is this quintessence of dust?
—Shakespeare, Hamlet2.2.303-310 (Silva Rhetoricae)

2. Another: Man is the example of imbecillitie, the image of unconstancie, the spoile of time, the bondman of miserie, the vessell of insatiable desire, and the confident castell of sudden ruine. (Peacham)

Kind Of Omission
Identity
Repetition
Series
Part Of
Related Figures circumlocution
Notes
Confidence Unconfident
Last Editor Ashley Rose Kelly
Confidence Unconfident
Editorial Notes
Reviewed No