Definition:
(1) Either or both of the upright curved lines, ( ), used to mark off explanatory or qualifying remarks in writing. (2) The insertion of some verbal unit in a position that interrupts the normal syntactic flow of the sentence. (See Parenthetical Details in Capote's Place Description.) Plural, parentheses.
Etymology:
From the Latin, "to insert beside"Examples:
- "The English (it must be owned) are rather a foul-mouthed nation."
(William Hazlitt) - "Considered logically this concept is not identical with the totality of sense impressions referred to; but it is an arbitrary creation of the human (or animal) mind."
(Albert Einstein) - "The moral flabbiness born of the exclusive worship of the bitch-goddess success. That--with the squalid cash interpretation put on the word success--is our national disease."
(William James, Letter to H. G. Wells) - "In the valley of the jolly--ho-ho-ho!--Green Giant."
(commercial jingle for Green Giant foods) - "If anyone thinks very intently on a single idea, with concentration and sustained attention, he will become conscious of a slight quiver or creeping feeling--it has been compared to the creeping of an ant--in the pineal gland."
(Annie Besant, Thought Power) - "Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
(Which was rather late for me)--
Between the end of the Chatterley ban
And the Beatles' first LP."
(Philip Larkin, "Annus Mirabilis") - "If you can't hear me, it's because I'm in parentheses."
(Steven Wright) - "At last it is Curly who picks up the plank, rough hewn and smelling of sweet gum, and--feeling the weight and heft and fiber of it--swings it innocently (bending to retrieve the tool, the ball-peen hammer dropped casually on Larry’s toe) and feeling the awful force of the blow as it (the plank) catches Moe upside his head . . .."
(David Sheffield, winner of the 2004 Faux Faulkner contest)
Pronunciation: pa-REN=thi-sis
Also Known As: round brackets
