Acutezza

Techniques > Use of language > Figures of speech > Acutezza

Method | Example | Discussion | See also

Description

Acutezza is the use of wit or wordplay.

Example

Like Apollo, storms across the town. Then apologizing for the devastation.

She would! Two short planks, perhaps?

You say you have evidence, but evidently you do not.

Discussion

Sometimes just the cleverness of how words are used is enough to persuade. Like a lawyer in court keeping the jury entertained whilst subtly influencing their thought processes or a poet dazzling through perfect stanzas, wit and wordplay are a form of entrancing beauty that can make up for a lot of fallacious underlying logic.

The sharper wit may use many figures of speech and rhetorical devices in a single sentence. The meaning may not even be clear on the surface and the purpose may just be to establish the speaker's superiority. The real effect in the end is how the listener's mind is changed across the whole intercourse.

'Acutezza' is Italian for sharpness or acuity.

Classification: Humor