periphrasis

Prince Bumpo, the heir to the throne, is a mooncalf who mistakes fairy tales for real life, speaks in Elizabethan periphrasis and murmurs to himself: “If only I were a white prince!”

From New York Times ● Sep. 9, 2020

This periphrasis so fascinated Charles W. Morton, now the associate editor of the Atlantic, that he began collecting examples of "Elongated Yellow Fruit" writing.

From Time Magazine Archive

Oddly, they all speak the same puckish periphrasis.

From Time Magazine Archive

There is incomparably more beauty and force in expressing the energy of the Verb, with its personal relation and concomitant circumstances, in one word, than by a periphrasis of pronouns and auxiliaries.

From Elements of Gaelic Grammar by Alexander Stewart

“The investiture of the ‘twice-born’—a common periphrasis for a Brahman—of a mystical triple cord, or rather a thread diversely re-triplicated up to the number ninety-six, is understood to be a purifying rite.

From Cultus Arborum Phallic Tree Worship by Anonymous

One of the most frequent periphrases for a wedding, is the expression “joyful event.”

From Village Life in China A Study in Sociology by Arthur H. Smith

Participles.—These are active and passive, perfect and imperfect, in the old language, but all are replaced by periphrases in Coptic.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 1 "Edwardes" to "Ehrenbreitstein" by Various

In ordinary conversation do not seek periphrases, subtleties, or figures of speech.

From George Washington's Rules of Civility Traced to their Sources and Restored by Moncure D. Conway by Moncure Daniel Conway

This, I must repeat, is the true way of learning the meaning of words; and leaves impressions, which no dictionary, with its periphrases and mere approximations to synonymes can give.

From Guide to the Kindergarten and Intermediate Class and Moral Culture of Infancy. by Mary E. Mann

He abounded in periphrases as highly coloured as sacred pictures.

From Renée Mauperin by Alys Hallard