#WordOfTheDay for Friday, May 09, 2014 diction \ DIK-shuhn \ , noun; 1. style of speaking or writing as dependent upon choice of words: good diction . 2. the accent, inflection, intonation, and speech-sound quality manifested by an individual speaker, usually judged in terms of prevailing standards of acceptability; enunciation. But the main characters themselves are not credible, with their mythic passions, expressed in diction more formal and flowery than would ever issue from a boy of the slums and a girl from the world of pampered inanity. -- Rhoda Koenig, Rio Is Rich, New York, 1994 But wise men pierce this rotten diction and fasten words again to visible things; so that picturesque language is at once a commanding certificate that he who employs it is a man in alliance with truth and God. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, 1836 Diction stems from the Latin dīcere meaning to say. The term entered English in the early 1400s.
Posted on: Fri, 09 May 2014 12:40:56 +0000
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