epideictic

/ ˌɛpɪˈdaɪktɪk /

adjective

1. designed to display something, esp the skill of the speaker in rhetoric Alsoepidicticˌɛpɪˈdɪktɪk

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.

From Project Gutenberg

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

From Project Gutenberg

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

From Project Gutenberg

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.

From Project Gutenberg

Again, many of the so-called epideictic epigrams are little more than stories told shortly in elegiac verse, much like the stories in Ovid's Fasti.

From Project Gutenberg