epideictic

/ ˌɛpɪˈdaɪktɪk /

adjective

1. Also: epidictic. designed to display something, esp the skill of the speaker in rhetoric

Word History and Origins

Origin of epideictic¹

C18: from Greek epideiktikos, from epideiknunai to display, show off, from deiknunai to show

Example Sentences

This fragment describes the treatment of Gaza and its inhabitants by Alexander after its conquest, but it is possible that it is only part of an epideictic or show-speech, not of an historical work.

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The very title, Alexiad suggests rather an epos--a poem in prose--than a serious historical work, and emphasizes its epideictic tendency.

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My felicitations, Atticus, on your welding of dirge and exhortation into one epideictic oration!

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The epideictic orators became less orators and more poets, and the poets cultivated less the characteristic vividness and movement of poetic than those turns of style which began in oratory.

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It would be possible to follow the old divisions of the Palatine Anthology with little change but for the epideictic section.

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