aposiopesis
[ap-uh-sahy-uh-pee-sis]
- a sudden breaking off in the midst of a sentence, as if from inability or unwillingness to proceed.
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Origin of aposiopesis
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for aposiopesis
Historical Examples
His aposiopesis suggested that there would be uproar and danger to life.
The Education of Eric LaneStephen McKenna
The aposiopesis was alarming, and Blarden's direction was obeyed instantaneously.
The Cock and AnchorJoseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Eustathius, and Clarke after him, understand an aposiopesis here, as if the speaker meant to say—what if there should be?
The Odyssey of HomerHomer
Though in my edition I have made here an aposiopesis, I think it more probable that a line has been lost.
There may have been, as Malone thought, a line lost here; but I rather think it is an aposiopesis.
aposiopesis
- rhetoric the device of suddenly breaking off in the middle of a sentence as if unwilling to continue
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Word Origin
C16: via Late Latin from Greek, from aposiōpaein to be totally silent, from siōpaein to be silent
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for aposiopesis
n.
rhetorical artifice wherein the speaker suddenly breaks off in the middle of a sentence, 1570s, from Latin, from Greek aposiopesis "a becoming silent," also as a rhetorical figure, from apo- (see apo-) + siope "silence."
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper