Diacope

Techniques > Use of language > Figures of speech > Diacope

Method | Example | Discussion | See also

Description

Diacope is the repetition of a word or phrase with only a few other intervening words between the repetition and the original use.

Example

Fire, hot fire, burned across the town.

It will be done. By hook or by crook, it will be done.

'Why?' he asked, 'Why?' And well he might.

Discussion

Diacope can be done in a form where the repetition is done almost as a correction to add more descriptive text. Another form is as a bracket, starting and ending a section with the same words.

Repeating a word is a form of emphasis, drawing attention to a work by simply stating it again (and thereby creating a pattern).

Diacope is Greek for 'cutting in two'.

Classification: Repetition