Found this recently:
An Illustrated Glossary of Rhetorical Terms
It’s all there, from “accumulation” (figure wherein a rhetor gathers scattered points and lists them together) to “zeugma” (use of a word to modify or govern two or more words although its use is grammatically or logically correct with only one). Here are some other goodies:
- bdelygmia: A litany of abuse — a series of critical epithets, descriptions, or attributes.
-“The Republicans are not stupid. They tagged the liberals as ‘latte-drinking, Volvo-driving, school-busing, fetus-killing, tree-hugging, gun-fearing, morally relativist and secularly humanist so-called liberal elitists,’ as commentator Jason Epstein described it, soft on communism, soft on crime, opposed to capital punishment, and soft on the new war on terrorism.”
(Mortimer Zuckerman, U.S. News, 6 June 2005) - epizeuxis: Repetition of a word for emphasis (usually with no words in between).
-Waitress: Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Bloody vikings. You can’t have egg, bacon, spam and sausage without the spam.
Mrs. Bun: I don’t like spam!
Mr. Bun: Shh dear, don’t cause a fuss. I’ll have your spam. I love it. I’m having spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, baked beans, spam, spam, spam and spam.
(Monty Python, “The Spam Sketch“) -
synathroesmus: The piling up of adjectives, often in the spirit of invective.
-“He’s a proud, haughty, consequential, turned-up-nose peacock.”
(Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby)
Excellent! Onto the linkpile with it.