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cataplexis. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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cataplexis in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
Ultimately from καταπλήσσω (kataplḗssō, “to strike down”), from κατα- (kata-, “down”) (see cata-) + πλήσσω (plḗssō, “to strike”).
Noun
cataplexis (uncountable)
- (rhetoric) A rhetorical device in which a threat of retribution (especially of divine punishment) is made in response to wrongdoing.
- Synonym: commination
2016, E. Decamp, Civic and Medical Worlds in Early Modern England: Performing Barbery and Surgery, page 41:In III.v's [sc. Ben Jonson's Epicoene] final sixty lines, Morose and Truewit wish calamity on Cutbeard: 'May he get the itch, and his shop so lousy as no man dare come at him' (III.v.70-71). They focus half of their cataplexis on Cutbeard's body, which they hope will develop blotches and gout, and the other half on the objects of his trade.