(περιφράσσω, about, φράσσω, I speak) signifies properly circumlocution, and is applied to that figure of rhetoric in which more words are used than are necessary to express the idea, with the design of avoiding common and trite modes of expression, and thus giving dignity and elevation to the discourse. The periphrasis is of great use on some occasions; and it is often necessary, to make things be conceived which it is not proper to name. It is sometimes polite to suppress the names, and only to intimate or allude to them. These turns of expression are also particularly serviceable in oratory; for the sublime admitting of no direct citations, there must be a compass taken in to insinuate the authors whose authority is borrowed. A periphrasis, by turning round a proper name in order to make it understood, amplifies and raises the discourse; but care must be taken that it be not too much swelled nor extended mal à propos, in which case it becomes flat and languid.