CIRCUMLOCUTION Copy link • CIRCUMLOCUTIONperiphrasis, circuitio, circuitus eloquendi, circuitus plurium verborum, circumlocutio (all as grammatical technical terms for περιφρασις, Cic., Quint.). ☞ Aroid circumscriptio, amfractus verborum (which in this sense has not the sanction of any old writer), and periphrasis, which is a Grecism. A poetical circumlocution, circumlocutio poetica (Gell.). If our language does not possess the word, we must employ a circumlocution, si non reperitur vox nostras, vel pluribus et per ambitum verborum res enuncianda est (after Suet., Tib., 71, extr). To describe anything by circumlocution, pluribus verbis aliquid exponere or explicare (Cic., Quint.): pluribus et per ambitum verborum aliquid enunciare (Suet., Tib., 71): circuitu plurium verborum ostendere aliquid (Quint.): also simply circumire aliquid (Quint., 8, 2, 17; 12, 10, 32). ☞ Circumscribere with or without verbis is more “to describe, define,” etc.: circumscriptio is rather “a period.” To use a long circumlocution, aliquid copiosa loquacitate circumire. Beating about the bush, ambages.