ecphonema · noun — interjection; ecphonesis. It carries an Arena rating of 1503, earned across 336 head-to-head judged battles.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, ecphonema ranks #1,491 of 17,205 for The Improbable, #1,620 of 17,165 for Most Satisfying to Say, #1,645 of 17,195 for Most Exacting Words, #3,447 of 17,177 for Most Whimsical Words.
Why “ecphonema” is a great word
ECPHONEMA — [Noun] In rhetoric, an interjected exclamation animated by a sudden surge of emotion—joy, horror, or awe—within formal discourse. From the Ancient Greek ἐκφώνημα (ekphṓnēma, "something called out"), from ἐκ- (ek-, "out") and φωνή (phōnḗ, "sound, voice"). First attested in English in 1736. Unlike a grammatical "interjection" (which labels any emotional word) or the rhetorical figure "ecphonesis" (which can name the act of exclaiming), an ecphonema is the specific, crystallized utterance itself. It is the sharp "Alas!" in a tragic soliloquy, the climactic "O tempora, O mores!" of Cicero, or the involuntary "Heavens!" that escapes a genteel debate—a stark reminder of the human voice beneath the text, a fracture in rhetoric's polished surface through which raw feeling briefly escapes.
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Etymology
From Ancient Greek ἐκφώνημα (ekphṓnēma, “something called out”), from φωνέω (phōnéō, “produce sound”).
noun
- interjection; ecphonesis
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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