December 11, 2008, 19:20
KallehTrope
I get Google alerts for the word
epicaricacy. Usually it's a nothing, such as a post by this fool named "epicaricacy." However, today's alert was on zoenox's Livejournal, posting about
words. I had a question about his entry for
trope, which I've not heard of. One of his definitions is "a common or overused theme or device: cliché." When I look it up elsewhere, I find defnitions like "A figure of speech using words in nonliteral ways, such as a metaphor." Except for Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary (which apparently zoenox copied his definition from, word for word), the other cites don't describe it as "overused" or a "cliché." Interestingly, Wiktionary says that it's "Similar to a cliché, but not necessarily pejorative."
Have you seen
trope to mean using words in nonliteral ways, such as a metaphor, or have you seen that definition to go further, calling it "overused" or a "cliché?"
December 12, 2008, 02:27
Richard Englishquote:
Have you seen trope to mean using words in nonliteral ways
That's the only meaning I know.
December 12, 2008, 05:35
zmježdI know it only as a lit. crit. term from rhetoric. Latin
tropus means 'turn' as in in
turn of phrase or figure of speech. I think zoenox ought to leave lexicography to the professionals.
December 12, 2008, 07:39
<Asa Lovejoy>I've not seen it as a stand-alone word, but then I don't get out much. I'm only familiar with it as a part of other words, as in heliotropic, or zoetrope.
Is it related to strophe? Sure does look like it.
December 12, 2008, 08:20
zmježd Is it related to strophe?Yes, as in
apostrophe, lit. 'a turning away'. Also related to
apotropaic,
entropy,
trophy, and
tropic. The Latin is borrowed from the Greek
tropos. From the PIE root *
trep- 'to turn' (
link).