Elocution

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ELOCUTION. The study and practice of oral delivery, including control of breath, VOICE, PRONUNCIATION, stance, and gesture (Has he taken elocution lessons?); the way in which someone speaks or reads aloud, especially in public (flawless elocution). An early meaning of the term was literary STYLE as distinct from content, and relates to the Latin meaning of elocutio (‘speaking out’), one of the canons or departments of RHETORIC. Elocution as training in how to speak ‘properly’ (as in taking elocution lessons) was a feature of EDUCATION, particularly for girls, in the 18–19c. SHAW, who gave an extended dramatic treatment to elocution in Pygmalion (1912), added to his will in 1913 a clause giving some of the residue of his estate to ‘The substitution of a scientific training in PHONETICS for the makeshifts of so-called elocution lessons by actors and others which have hitherto prevailed in the teaching of oratory’. See ORTHOEPY, PERIOD, PROSE.

el·o·cu·tion / ˌeləˈkyoōshən/ • n. the skill of clear and expressive speech, esp. of distinct pronunciation and articulation. ∎  a particular style of speaking. DERIVATIVES: el·o·cu·tion·ar·y / -ˌnerē/ adj. el·o·cu·tion·ist / -ist/ n.

elocution †literary or oratorical style XV; oral utterance or delivery XVII. — L. ēlocūtiō, -ōn-, f. ēlocūt-, pp. stem of ēloquī; see ELOQUENCE, -TION.

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