Definition:
Asking questions to reproach rather than to elicit answers. See also: rhetorical question.
Etymology:
From the Greek, "rebuke"Examples:
- "Have you no shame?"
- "Stop thinking and end your problems.
What difference between yes and no?
What difference between success and failure?
Must you value what others value, avoid what others avoid?
How ridiculous!"
(Tao Te Ching) - "--And why do you go to France or Belgium, said Miss Ivors, instead of visiting your own land?
"--Well, said Gabriel, it’s partly to keep in touch with the languages and partly for a change.
"--And haven’t you your own language to keep in touch with--Irish? asked Miss Ivors."
(James Joyce, "The Dead") - "'Suppose you wake up some morning and find your sister dead? What would you think then?' she asked. 'Suppose those rats cut our veins at night while we sleep? Naw! Nothing like that ever bothers you! All you care about is your own pleasure!'"
(Richard Wright, Native Son) - "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
(Joseph Welch to Senator Joseph McCarthy, June 9, 1954) - "You think what I do is playing God, but you presume you know what God wants. Do you think that's not playing God?"
(John Irving, The Cider House Rules, 1985) - "Ah, sorry to interrupt you there, Bobbo, but I gotta ask you a quick question. Now, when you were born, nay, spawned by the Dark Prince himself, did that rat bastard forget to give you a hug before he sent you along your way?"
(Dr. Cox in the television program Scrubs, 2007) - "If you cut off my reproductive choice, can I cut off yours?"
(bumper-sticker) - "Are we children of a lesser God? Is an Israeli teardrop worth more than a drop of Lebanese blood?”
(Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, July 2006)
Pronunciation: e-pi-PLEX-is
Also Known As: epitimesis
