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Apr 30, 2026
This week’s themeGeometrical terms used figuratively This week’s words circle the wagons square-toed circumlocution
“Circumlocution Office”
Image: A still from the BBC miniseries Little Dorrit, 2008 Wordsmith Games
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Gargcircumlocution
PRONUNCIATION:
MEANING:
noun: The use of roundabout language, especially to avoid giving a direct answer.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin circum- (around) + locution (talk), from loqui (to speak).
Earliest documented use: 1518.
NOTES:
Circumlocution is the fine art of taking a 360-degree approach to
a yes-or-no question. It’s a fancy word for beating around the bush. In
Little Dorrit (1855-1857), Charles Dickens gave us the Circumlocution
Office, a government department devoted less to action than to obstruction.
As he put it, it excelled in “How not to do it.” A straight line may be
the shortest distance between two points, but bureaucracies have always
preferred scenic routes.
USAGE:
“The poet Donald Hall casts a wintry eye at our circumlocutions for
death -- pass away, go home, cross over, etc. -- and notes that ‘all
euphemisms conceal how we gasp and choke turning blue.’” Tad Friend; Getting On; The New Yorker; Nov 20, 2017. See more usage examples of circumlocution in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. -Annie
Dillard, author (b. 30 Apr 1945)
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