paraphrastic

American  

[par-uh-fras-tik] / ˌpær əˈfræs tɪk /

adjective

1. having the nature of a paraphrase.

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Other Word Forms

• paraphrastically adverb

Etymology

Origin of paraphrastic

1615–25; < Medieval Latin paraphrasticus < Greek paraphrastikós. See paraphrast, -ic

Example Sentences

The extract illustrates the paraphrastic nature of parts of the translation.

From The Translations of Beowulf A Critical Bibliography by Tinker, Chauncey Brewster

Many of the quotations from the Old Testament in the New are highly paraphrastic.

From The Gospels in the Second Century An Examination of the Critical Part of a Work Entitled 'Supernatural Religion' by Sanday, William

The same kind of paraphrastic dilution runs through the volume; nor is Mr. Muirhead wholly to blame.

From The Book-Collector A General Survey of the Pursuit and of those who have engaged in it at Home and Abroad from the Earliest Period to the Present Time by Hazlitt, William Carew

Commentaries and translations are numerous in German and in English; the translations by Denis Florence MacCarthy are the most satisfactory, Edward Fitzgerald's being too paraphrastic.

From Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 7 by Warner, Charles Dudley

It is almost too much when, as from the pulpit, a paraphrastic commentary is prepared for our spiritual improvement.

From Harvard Classics Volume 28 Essays English and American by Eliot, Charles William