ELYOT, (Sir) Thomas

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ELYOT, (Sir) Thomas [1499?–1546]. English statesman and scholar. In such works as The boke named The gouernour (1531), he held that though RHETORIC made LATIN and GREEK style more eloquent, the structure of English made meaning clearer. Elyot sought to increase English vocabulary by borrowing from Latin, Greek, and FRENCH, in order to correct ‘the insufficiencie of our owne langage’. When introducing new words, he often used them in explanatory pairs: education or bringing up of children; explicating or unfolding. See BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER.

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