Commoratio: Definition and Examples

Commoratio (the latin term for EpimoneOpens in new window; with its literal sense meaning “delaying or dwelling on a point”), is a rhetorical device which consists when a speaker dwells on the same idea or theme, in different expressions and in different contexts.

Commoratio involves the repetition of the same point, although with different words each time. The examples below shed more light on this.

Notable Examples of Commoratio

  1. “Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.”

    — Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

  2. “On many days, the dampness of the air pervades all life, all living. Matches refuse to strike. The towel, hung to dry, grows wetter by the hour. The newspaper, with its headlines about integration, wilts in your hand and falls limply into the coffee and the egg. Envelopes seal themselves. Postage stamps mate with one another as shamelessly as grasshoppers.”

    — E. B. White, The Ring of Time

  3. “This parrot is no more. It has ceased to be. It’s expired and gone to see its maker! This is a late parrot. It’s a stiff! Bereft of life! It rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed it to the perch it would be pushing up the daisies! It’s run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible! This is an ex-parrot!”

    — Monty Python, The Dead Parrot Sketch

  • Share

Similar Literatures: Figures of Reasoning/Figures of Amplification

Trending Collections

Recommended Books to Flex Your Knowledge