ODLT--The Online Dictionary of Language Terminology



anaphora (rhetoric)
Definition - Emphasizing a concept by repeating the same word or phrase at the beginning of several consecutive utterances.

Example -
We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail. (George W. Bush)

Etymology -
The word means "carrying back" in Greek.

Oxford English Dictionary -
Its first citation is from 1589:
"Anaphora, or the Figure of Report … as thus: To thinke on death it is a miserie, To think on life it is a vanitie: To thinke on the world verily it is, To thinke that heare man hath no perfit blisse."
(Puttenham English Poesie (Arb.) 208)



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