periphrastic
pe·riph·ras·tic
adjective
1.
roundabout and unnecessarily wordy
- “had a preference for circumlocutious (or circumlocutory) rather than forthright expression”
- “A periphrastic study in a worn-out poetical fashion,/ Leaving one still with the intolerable wrestle/ With words and meanings.” T.S.Eliot
- “ambagious”
Origin
Borrowed from Ancient Greek περιφραστικός (periphrastikós), from περίφρασις (períphrasis, “periphrasis”).
Phrases
- periphrastic conjugation
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.