macrologia

Figure Name macrologia
Source Silva Rhetoricae (http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Silva.htm)
Earliest Source None
Synonyms macro, long, logos, speaking, macrology
Etymology None
Type Trope
Linguistic Domain Semantic
Definition

Longwindedness. Using more words than are necessary in an attempt to appear eloquent.

Example

Polonius exemplifies macrologia in the following speech from Hamlet.
My liege, and madam, to expostulate
What majesty should be, what duty is,
Why day is day, night night, and time is time,
Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time;
Therefore, [since] brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief. Your noble son is mad:
Mad call I it, for to define true madness,
What is't but to be nothing else but mad?
—Shakespeare, Hamlet 2.2.86-94

Kind Of
Part Of
Related Figures periergia, tautologia
Notes
Confidence Confident
Last Editor Jacqueline Mok
Confidence Confident
Editorial Notes
Reviewed No