Definition:
A rhetorical term for an exclamation expressing strong emotion. Adjective: ecphonetic.
See also:
Etymology:
From the Greek, "exclamation"Examples and Observations:
- "O, popular applause! what heart of man is proof against thy sweet, seducing charms?"
(William Cowper, Lessons in Life: A Series of Familiar Essays) - "Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!
(William Wordsworth, "Upon Westminster Bridge") - "Almighty God!--no, no! They heard!--they suspected!--they knew!--they were making a mockery of my horror!--this I thought, and this I think. But anything was better than this agony! Anything was more tolerable than this derision! I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt that I must scream or die! and now--again!--hark! louder! louder! louder! louder!
"'Villains!' I shrieked, 'dissemble no more! I admit the deed!--tear up the planks! here, here!--It is the beating of his hideous heart!'"
(Edgar Allan Poe, "The Tell-Tale Heart") - "Oh joy! Rapture! I got a brain!"
(Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, 1939) - "Humiliations galore!"
(Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride, 1987) - "No! No-no-no-no-no-no! Well, yes."
(Homer Simpson of The Simpsons) - "As soon as we could see the outline of it, I said, ‘Holy mackerel, I think we have a skull!’"
(Dinosaur hunter Bruce Young on finding a triceratops fossil in Colorado, November 2003) - "Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?"
(Edward G. Robinson as Cesare Enrico "Rico" Bandello in Little Caesar) - "How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book!"
(Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854) - "[Ecphonesis is] the figure of exclamation. I call him the outcrie because it utters our mind by all such words as do show any extreme passion, whether it be by way of exclamation or crying out, admiration or wondering, imprecation or cursing, obtestation or taking God and the world to witness, or any such like as declare an impotent affection, a kind of figurative speech when we ask mnay questions and look for none answers, speaking indeed by interrogation, which we might as well say by affirmation."
(George Puttenham, The Arte of English Poesie, 1590) - "I once had a leather jacket that got ruined in the rain. Why does moisture ruin leather? Aren't cows outside a lot of the time? When it's raining, do cows go up to the farmhouse: 'Let us in! We're all wearing leather! Open the door! We're going to ruin the whole outfit here!'"
(Jerry Seinfeld)
Pronunciation: ek-fo-NEE-sis
Also Known As: exclamation
