Terminology Tuesday: Circumlocution

Since Toilet Paper is all the rage right now…

CIRCUMLOCUTION. A rhetorical device (often employed in the Bible) involving deliberate evasiveness in speech or writing, talking around a delicate subject rather than using straightforward references. For example, defecation is sometimes referred to as “covering one’s feet” (Judg 3:24; 1 Sam 24:3). See BIBLE, EUPHEMISM AND DYSPHEMISM IN THE.

Freedman, D. N. (Ed.). (1992). Circumlocution. In The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (Vol. 1, p. 1031). New York: Doubleday.