Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word
erotema. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
erotema, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
erotema in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
erotema you have here. The definition of the word
erotema will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
erotema, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Noun
erotema (countable and uncountable, plural erotemas)
- (rhetoric) The rhetorical use of questions, especially questions which strongly imply their own answer.
1939, Peter MacNaughton Miller, The Rhetoric of Sidney's Arcadia, page 206:Since the simple question, though technically erotema, is scarcely a figure however, I leave it out of the discussion.
1977, Joseph A. Leo Lemay, Essays in Early Virginia Literature Honoring Richard Beale Davis, page 173:Erotema probably occupies more space in Camm's writings than does any other single device.
1995, Pynchon Notes - Issues 32-35, page 17:Here erotema is fused with the logical fallacy begging the question: for example , "Shall we let her pull the wool over our eyes?"
2005, Brett Zimmerman, Edgar Allan Poe: Rhetoric and Style, page 211:The narrator's use of erotema would seem to be a frantic rhetorical attempt to encourage acceptance in his audience of the theory of perversity . Through erotema he is asking his auditors to think deductively (to move from the general to the specific) by saying something like this: "Look, everyone has succumbed to perverse impulse now and then, right?— so you'll believe me when I tell you that perversity overcame me too, on the occasion when I hanged my poor cat."
Derived terms