[107]
Visellius also adds
general reflexions to the list. I find others who
would add to these διασκευή1 or enhancement,
ἀπαγόρευσις or prohibition, and παραδιήγησις or
incidental narrative. But though these are not
figures, there may be others which have slipped
my notice, or are yet to be invented: still, they
will be of the same nature as those of which I have
spoken above.
[p. 443]
III. Figures of speech have always been liable to
change and are continually in process of change in
accordance with the variations of usage. Consequently when we compare the language of our
ancestors with our own, we find that practically everything we say nowadays is figurative. For example,
we say invidere hac re for to “grudge a thing,”
instead of hanc rem, which was the idiom of all the
ancients, more especially Cicero, and incumbere illi
(to lean upon him) for incumbere in ilium, plenum vino
(full of wine) for plenum vini, and huic adulari (to flatter
him) for hunc adulari. I might quote a thousand
other examples, and only wish I could say that the
changes were not often changes for the worse.
1 Apparently some form of exaggeration.
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