cataplexis means A rhetorical device in which a threat of retribution (especially of divine punishment) is made in response to wrongdoing. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 94 out of 100.
Why this word is great
CATAPLEXIS — [Noun] A rhetorical device in which a threat of divine or severe retribution is made in response to a transgression. From Ancient Greek κατάπληξις (katáplēxis, "amazement, consternation"), from καταπλήσσω (kataplḗssō, "to strike down, to amaze"). Unlike apodioxis, which dismisses an argument as unworthy, or bdelygmia, which vents raw contempt, cataplexis is a conditional prophecy, a thundercloud of consequence held in deliberate suspense. It is the prophet’s finger leveled from the whirlwind, the curse carved into temple stone, the crackling silence before the patriarch’s uttered decree—a formal architecture of dread that binds morality to consequence by the sheer force of levied will.
noun
- A rhetorical device in which a threat of retribution (especially of divine punishment) is made in response to wrongdoing.“In III.v's [sc. Ben Jonson's Epicoene] final sixty lines, Morose and Truewit wish calamity on Cutbeard: 'May he get the itch, and his shop so lousy as no man dare come at him' (III.v.70-71). They focus half of their cataplexis on Cutbeard's body, which they hope will develop blotches and gout, and the other half on the objects of his trade.”