‘Of nouns and verbs’ (the ultimate elements, and principal components, of language: see Introd. Appendix A to Bk. III. p. 371. Poet. XXI 8—9) ‘perspicuity is produced by (the use of) proper names, a character not tame but ornate is imparted by all the rest of the (kinds of) words which are enumerated in the Poetics (c. XXI 4): to alter language in this way’ (from the received and familiar expressions to which we are accustomed), ‘invests it with a higher dignity’ (because it makes it unusual, and strange; not familiar, which ‘breeds contempt’): ‘for men have the same feeling in regard of language as they have to strangers as compared with their fellow-citizens’ (they disregard those whom they are in the habit of seeing every day, but are struck with the appearance of strangers, and pay them attention, if not always respect). To the note on κύρια ὀνόματα, Introd. p. 282, note 2, add that in the Rhet. ad Alex. 25 (26) 1, and 30 (31) 6, these are called οἰκεῖα ‘proper’, by a different metaphor. ἐξαλλάξαι] infra § 5, ἐξαλλάττειν τοῦ πρέποντος, c. 3. 3, τὸ εἰωθὸς ἐξαλλάττειν (which explains it: comp.Poet. XXII 3 infra). So Poet. XXI 4, and 20, ὄνομα ἐξηλλαγμένον, XXII 3, (λέξις) ἐξαλλάττουσα τὸ ἰδιωτικόν, Ib. § 8, ἐξαλλαγαὶ τῶν ὀνομάτων. From which it results that the meaning of the term is ‘a change out of, or departure from ὀνόματα κύρια, the vulgar language, the ordinary mode of expression’, for which something novel, unusual, striking is substituted. Isocr. περὶ ἀντιδόσεως § 179, λόγους διεξιὼν πολὺ τῶν εἰθισμένων λέγεσθαι παρ᾽ ὑμῖν ἐξηλλαγμένους; Demetr. περὶ ἑρμηνείας, περὶ συγκρίσεως ult. (Spengel, Rhet. Gr. III 280), λέξιν περιττὴν καὶ ἐξηλλαγμένην, καὶ ἀσυνήθη. Dionysius, de admirabili vi dicendi in Demosthene, c. 10, ἐξηλλαγμένον τοῦ συνήθους χαρακτῆρος, Ib. c. 15, περιττὰ καὶ ἐξηλλαγμένον τοῦ συνήθους, de Thuc. Iud. c. 28, τὴν διάνοιαν ἐξαλλάττειν ἐκ τῶν ἐν ἔθει, Ep. II ad Amm. c. 3 ἡ ἐξηλλαγμένη τῆς συνήθους χρήσεως. Ernesti, Lex. Techn. Gr. s. v.
Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle. Edward Meredith Cope. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1877.
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