| epistrophe |
| Definition:
The repeating of words at the end of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences to increase emphasis. Note: In rhetoric, anaphora emphasizes words by repeating them at the beginnings of neighboring clauses, whereas epistrophe is the repeating of words at the ends of clauses. |
| Example:
(1) (epistrophe) When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. (1 Corinthians 13:11) (2) (anaphora) Mad world! Mad kings! Mad composition! — William Shakespeare, King John, II, i |
| Etymology: In Greek it means "a turning upon." |
| Oxford English Dictionary: Its first citation is from 1647: "Feigned speeches, prosopopeias and epistrophes." (Sprigge Anglia Rediv. (1854) Addr. 8 ) |