periphrastic
adj 1: roundabout and unnecessarily wordy; "had a preference for circumlocutious (or circumlocutory) rather than forthright expression"; "A periphrastic study in a worn- out poetical fashion,/ Leaving one still with the intolerable wrestle/ With words and meanings."-T.S.Eliot; (`ambagious' is archaic) [syn: circumlocutious, circumlocutory, periphrastic, ambagious]

"Periphrastic" strikes me as a takes-one-to-know-one kind of word. By that I mean that "periphrastic" looks like a word reserved for use by periphrasticians. Even at that this mouthful of a word seems like a mere starting point for grandiloquent coinage (the preceding invented word concocted as an example).

This word is new to me. Before seeing the definition I imagined "periphrastic" referred to a glacial epoch or geological era. The related word "periphrasis," on the other hand, sounds like an arthritic condition.

Moving on to what "periphrastic" really means, it seems that its definition is almost an example of itself. It seems that "periphrase" refers simply to the use of excess words, with the curious synonym "circumlocution" thrown in to the mix.

I think of "circumlocution" as something more conniving than just excess in words. "Periphrasis" suggests directionless but harmless bluster of thrashing through a word thicket, mining for that one word to supplant the others.

To me "circumlocution" implies deception, double-talk, or what Oxford describes as "evasive talk." It is the stuff of filibusters and corporate bureaucracy.

It is strange how "periphrase" is pronounced the same as "paraphrase," the latter word favorably defined as re-wording something for the purpose of clarification. If "periphrase" were more commonly used I could imagine confusion overtaking some conversations.

Pardon me while I trip the light periphrastic!