#573. Diffuseness.—N. diffuseness &c. adj.; amplification &c. v.; dilating &c. v.; verbosity, verbiage, cloud of words, copia verborum[Lat]; flow of words &c. (loquacity) 584; looseness. Polylogy[obs3], tautology, battology[obs3], perissology|; pleonasm, exuberance, redundancy; thrice-told tale; prolixity; circumlocution, ambages [obs3]; periphrase[obs3], periphrasis; roundabout phrases; episode; expletive; pennya-lining; richness &c. 577. V. be diffuse &c. adj.; run out on, descant, expatiate, enlarge, dilate, amplify, expand, inflate; launch out, branch out; rant. maunder, prose; harp upon &c. (repeat) 104; dwell on, insist upon. digress, ramble, battre la campagne[Fr][obs3], beat about the bush, perorate, spin a long yarn, protract; spin out, swell out, draw out; battologize[obs3]. Adj. diffuse, profuse; wordy, verbose, largiloquent|, copious, exuberant, pleonastic, lengthy; longsome[obs3], long-winded, longspun[obs3], long drawn out; spun out, protracted, prolix, prosing, maundering; circumlocutory, periphrastic, ambagious[obs3], roundabout; digressive; discursive, excursive; loose; rambling episodic; flatulent, frothy. Adv. diffusely &c. adj.; at large, in extenso[Lat]; about it and about it.
#574. Vigor.—N. vigor, power, force; boldness, raciness &c. adj.;
intellectual, force; spirit, point, antithesis, piquance, piquancy; verve,
glow, fire, warmth; strong language; gravity, sententiousness; elevation,
loftiness, sublimity.
eloquence; command of words, command of language.
Adj. vigorous, nervous, powerful, forcible, trenchant, incisive,
impressive; sensational.
spirited, lively, glowing, sparkling, racy, bold, slashing; pungent,
piquant, full of point, pointed, pithy, antithetical; sententious.
lofty, elevated, sublime; eloquent; vehement, petulant, impassioned;
poetic.
Adv. in glowing terms, in good set terms, in no measured terms.
Phr. "thoughts that breath and words that burn" [Gray].
#575. Feebleness.—N. feebleness &c. adj. Adj. feeble, bald, tame, meager, jejune, vapid, bland, trashy, lukewarm, cold, frigid, poor, dull, dry, languid; colorless, enervated; proposing, prosy, prosaic; unvaried, monotonous, weak, washy, wishy-washy; sketchy, slight. careless, slovenly, loose, lax (negligent) 460; slipshod, slipslop[obs3]; inexact; puerile, childish; flatulent; rambling &c. (diffuse) 573.
#576. Plainness.—N. plainness &c. adj.; simplicity, severity; plain
terms, plain English; Saxon English; household words
V. call a spade "a spade"; plunge in medias res; come to the point.
Adj. plain, simple; unornamented, unadorned, unvarnished; homely,
homespun; neat; severe, chaste, pure, Saxon; commonplace, matter-of-fact,
natural, prosaic.
dry, unvaried,monotonous &c. 575.
Adv. in plain terms, in plain words, in plain English, in plain common
parlance; point-blank.
#577. Ornament.—N. ornament; floridness c[obs3]. adj. turgidity, turgescence[obs3]; altiloquence &c. adj[obs3].; declamation, teratology|!; well-rounded periods; elegance &c. 578; orotundity. inversion, antithesis, alliteration, paronomasia; figurativeness &c. (metaphor) 521. flourish; flowers of speech, flowers of rhetoric; frills of style, euphuism[obs3], euphemism. big-sounding words, high-sounding words; macrology[obs3], sesquipedalia verba[Lat], Alexandrine; inflation, pretension; rant, bombast, fustian, prose run mad; fine writing; sesquipedality[obs3]; Minerva press. phrasemonger; euphuist[obs3], euphemist. V. ornament, overlay with ornament, overcharge; smell of the lamp. Adj. ornament &c. v.; beautified &c. 847; ornate, florid, rich, flowery; euphuistic[obs3], euphemistic; sonorous; high-sounding, big- sounding; inflated, swelling, tumid; turgid, turgescent; pedantic, pompous, stilted; orotund; high flown, high flowing; sententious, rhetorical, declamatory; grandiose; grandiloquent, magniloquent, altiloquent[obs3]; sesquipedal[obs3], sesquipedalian; Johnsonian, mouthy; bombastic; fustian; frothy, flashy, flaming. antithetical, alliterative; figurative &c. 521; artificial &c. (inelegant) 579. Adv. ore rutundo[Lat].
#578. Elegance.—N. elegance, purity, grace, ease; gracefulness,
readiness &c. adj.; concinnity[obs3], euphony, numerosity[obs3];
Atticism[obs3], classicalism[obs3], classicism.
well rounded periods, well turned periods, flowing periods; the right
word in the right place; antithesis &c. 577.
*purist.
V. point an antithesis, round a period.
Adj. elegant, polished, classical, Attic, correct, Ciceronian,
artistic; chaste, pure, Saxon, academical[obs3].
graceful, easy, readable, fluent, flowing, tripping; unaffected,
natural, unlabored[obs3]; mellifluous; euphonious, euphemism, euphemistic;
numerose|, rhythmical.
felicitous, happy, neat; well put, neatly put, well expressed, neatly
expressed
#579. Inelegance.—N. inelegance; stiffness &c. adj.; "unlettered Muse" [Gray]; barbarism; slang &c. 563; solecism &c. 568; mannerism &c. (affectation) 855; euphuism[obs3]; fustian &c. 577; cacophony; words that break the teeth, words that dislocate the jaw; marinism[obs3]. V. be inelegant &c. adj. Adj. inelegant, graceless, ungraceful; harsh, abrupt; dry, stiff, cramped, formal, guinde[Fr]; forced, labored; artificial, mannered, ponderous; awkward, uncourtly[obs3], unpolished; turgid &c. 577; affected, euphuistic[obs3]; barbarous, uncouth, grotesque, rude, crude, halting; offensive to ears polite.
2. Spoken Language
#580. Voice.—N. voice; vocality[obs3]; organ, lungs, bellows; good voice, fine voice, powerful voice &c. (loud) 404; musical voice &c. 413; intonation; tone of voice &c. (sound) 402. vocalization; cry &c. 411; strain, utterance, prolation[obs3]; exclamation, ejaculation, vociferation, ecphonesis[obs3]; enunciation, articulation; articulate sound, distinctness; clearness, of articulation; stage whisper; delivery. accent, accentuation; emphasis, stress; broad accent, strong accent, pure accent, native accent, foreign accent; pronunciation. [Word similarly pronounced] homonym. orthoepy[obs3]; cacoepy[obs3]; euphony &c. (melody) 413. gastriloquism[obs3], ventriloquism; ventriloquist; polyphonism[obs3], polyphonist[obs3]. [Science of voice] phonology &c. (sound) 402. V. utter, breathe; give utterance, give tongue; cry &c. (shout) 411; ejaculate, rap out; vocalize, prolate|, articulate, enunciate, pronounce, accentuate, aspirate, deliver, mouth; whisper in the ear. Adj. vocal, phonetic, oral; ejaculatory, articulate, distinct, stertorous; euphonious &c. (melodious) 413. Phr. "how sweetly sounds the voice of a good woman" [Massinger]; "the organ of the soul" [Longfellow]; "thy voice is a celestial melody" [Longfellow].
#581. Aphony.—N. aphony[obs3], aphonia[obs3]; dumbness &c. adj.; obmutescence[obs3]; absence of voice, want of voice; dysphony[obs3]; cacoepy[obs3]; silence &c. (taciturnity) 585; raucity[obs3]; harsh voice &c. 410, unmusical voice &c. 414; falsetto, "childish treble mute"; dummy. V. keep silence &c. 585; speak low, speak softly; whisper &c. (faintness) 405. silence; render mute, render silent; muzzle, muffle, suppress, smother, gag, strike dumb, dumfounder; drown the voice, put to silence, stop one's mouth, cut one short. stick in the throat. Adj. aphonous[obs3], dumb, mute; deafmute, deaf and dumb; mum; tongue- tied; breathless, tongueless, voiceless, speechless, wordless; mute as a fish, mute as a stockfish[obs3], mute as a mackerel; silent &c. (taciturn) 585; muzzled; inarticulate, inaudible. croaking, raucous, hoarse, husky, dry, hollow, sepulchral, hoarse as a raven; rough. Adv. with bated breath, with the finger on the lips; sotto voce[Lat]; in a low tone, in a cracked voice, in a broken voice. Phr. vox faucibus haesit [Lat][Vergil].