ECHOISM

Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language | 1998 | 557 words | Copyright

ECHOISM.
1. A WORD that echoes a sound: splash, echoing a liquid striking something or something striking liquid; crunch suggesting something brittle breaking into pieces.

2. An expression that echoes or alludes to another: the statement ‘Marking T. S. Eliot's centenary, not with a whimper but a bang’ (Time, 26 Sept. 1988) echoes and inverts Eliot's own lines ‘This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper’ (The Hollow Men, 1925). Compare ALLUSION, ASSONANCE, ONOMATOPOEIA. See -ISM, ROOT-CREATION, STYLE.

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TOM McARTHUR. "ECHOISM." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

TOM McARTHUR. "ECHOISM." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-ECHOISM.html

TOM McARTHUR. "ECHOISM." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-ECHOISM.html

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