| Definition:
To express the meaning of something — say, a passage of text — in other words.
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| Example:
Whenever you restate something by using i.e. you are using paraphrasis. For example: "They said they were upstairs talking about Uganda (i.e., they were having sex)."
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| Etymology:
The word derives via French and Latin from the Greek paraphrazein, to tell in other words (from para, beside + phrazein, to tell).
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Oxford English Dictionary: The word's first OED citation is from 1538: "These words do let and interrupt the course of the paraphrasis."
(Cranmer Rem. (Parker Soc.) 213 (Stanf.)) |