circumlocution

American  

[sur-kuhm-loh-kyoo-shuhn] / ˌsɜr kəm loʊˈkyu ʃən /

noun

1. a roundabout or indirect way of speaking; the use of more words than necessary to express an idea.

   Synonyms:

   prolixity, verbosity, rambling

2. a roundabout expression.

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circumlocution British  

/ -trɪ, ˌsɜːkəmləˈkjuːʃən, ˌsɜːkəmˈlɒkjʊtərɪ /

noun

1. an indirect way of expressing something

2. an indirect expression

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circumlocution Cultural  

1. Roundabout speech or writing: “The driveway was not unlike that military training device known as an obstacle course” is a circumlocution for “The driveway resembled an obstacle course.” Circumlocution comes from Latin words meaning “speaking around.”

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Other Word Forms

• circumlocutional
  adjective
• circumlocutionary
  adjective
• circumlocutory
  adjective
• uncircumlocutory
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of circumlocution

1375–1425; late Middle English < Latin circumlocūtiōn- (stem of circumlocūtiō ). See circum-, locution

Explanation

Circumlocution is a long, complicated word which means a long, complicated way of expressing something. To cut to the chase, circumlocution means beating around the bush. Circumlocution comes from the Latin words circum, "circle," and loqui, "to speak." So circumlocution is speaking in circles, going round and round in a wordy way without ever getting to the heart of the matter. It's an evasive style of argument, best employed when you really don't want to say what's on your mind.

Example Sentences

Dickens’s Circumlocution Office, a government department that exists to do nothing, inhabits the same fictional reality as all the indolent, corrupt, authoritarian governors and tyrants in García Márquez’s work.

From New York Times • Apr. 21, 2014

Barnacle was head of the Circumlocution Office and believed in only hiring his relations.

From BBC • Jul. 22, 2013

Into this gloomy place enters, unexpectedly, Barnacle, youngest scion of the Barnacle family, the bloodsuckers who run the Circumlocution Office, that body dedicated to seeing that nothing worth happening ever happens.

From The Guardian • Oct. 8, 2010

The reporter seems to have taken a course in the Circumlocution Office.

From Time Magazine Archive

He had once been town agent in the Circumlocution Office, and was well-to-do.

From Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook, Vol. 3 by Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham