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Polyptoton is the stylistic scheme in which words derived from the same root are repeated (e.g. "strong" and "strength"). A related stylistic device is antanaclasis
Antanaclasis

In rhetoric, antanaclasis is the stylistic trope of repeating a single word, but with a different meaning each time. Antanaclasis is a common type of pun, and like other kinds of pun, it is often found in slogans....
, in which the same word is repeated, but each time with a different sense.






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Polyptoton is the stylistic scheme in which words derived from the same root are repeated (e.g. "strong" and "strength"). A related stylistic device is antanaclasis
Antanaclasis

In rhetoric, antanaclasis is the stylistic trope of repeating a single word, but with a different meaning each time. Antanaclasis is a common type of pun, and like other kinds of pun, it is often found in slogans....
, in which the same word is repeated, but each time with a different sense. In inflected languages polyptoton is the same word being repeated but appearing each time in a different case. (e.g. "Iuppiter," "Iovis," "Iovi," "Iovem," "Iove" [in Latin being the nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, and ablative forms of Iuppiter (Jupiter), respectively]).

Examples

  • "The Greeks are strong, and skillful to their strength, Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant;" William Shakespeare
    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare was an English people poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist....
    , Troilus and Cressida
    Troilus and Cressida

    Troilus and Cressida is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1602. The play is not a conventional tragedy, since its protagonist does not die....
     I, i, 7-8
  • "With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder." William Shakespeare
    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare was an English people poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist....
     Richard II
    Richard II (play)

    'King Richard the Second' is a history play by William Shakespeare believed to be written in approximately 1595. It is based on the life of King Richard II of England and is the first part of a tetralogy, referred to by scholars as the Henriad, followed by three plays concerning Richard's successors: Henry IV, part 1, Henry IV, part...
     II,i,37
  • "Not as a call to battle, though embattled we are." John F. Kennedy
    John F. Kennedy

    John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States, serving from 1961 until John F....
    , Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961.
  • "Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Franklin Delano Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, March 1933.
  • "Thou art of blood, joy not to make things bleed." Sir Philip Sidney
  • "We have been...treading trodden trails for a long, long time." Dave Matthews Band
    Dave Matthews Band

    Dave Matthews Band is an United States rock music band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia, Virginia in 1991. Founding members include singer-songwriter and guitarist Dave Matthews, bass guitar Stefan Lessard, violinist Boyd Tinsley, and drum kit Carter Beauford....
    , "So Much to Say
    So Much to Say

    "So Much to Say" is a song by Dave Matthews Band from their album, Crash . It won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in Grammy Awards of 1997....
    ", 1996
  • "Working hard or hardly working?" (author unknown)
  • "Who shall stand guard to the guards themselves (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)?" Juvenal
    Juvenal

    The Satires are a collection of satire poems by the Latin author Juvenal written in the late 1st and early 2nd centuries A.D.Juvenal is credited with sixteen known poems divided among five scroll; all are in the Roman genre of Satire, which, at its most basic in the time of the author, comprised a wide-ranging discussion of society and soc...
  • "Who will watch the Watchmen?" Alan Moore
    Alan Moore

    Alan Moore is an English writer most famous for his influential work in comics, including the acclaimed graphic novels Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell....
    , The Watchmen
    The Watchmen

    The Watchmen were a Canada rock band. They were one of the most commercially successful Canadian alternative rock groups of the mid to late 1990s....


See also

  • Antanaclasis
    Antanaclasis

    In rhetoric, antanaclasis is the stylistic trope of repeating a single word, but with a different meaning each time. Antanaclasis is a common type of pun, and like other kinds of pun, it is often found in slogans....
  • Cognate object
    Cognate object

    In linguistics, a cognate object is a verb's object that is cognate with the verb. More specifically, the verb is one that is ordinarily intransitive , and the cognate object is simply the verb's noun form....
  • Figure of speech
    Figure of speech

    A figure of speech, sometimes termed a rhetoric, or locution, is a word or phrase that departs from straightforward, literal language. Figures of speech are often used and crafted for emphasis, freshness of expression, or clarity....
  • Rhetoric
    Rhetoric

    Rhetoric is the art of using language as a means to persuade. Along with logic and dialectic, rhetoric is one of the three ancient arts of discourse....