Epexegesis

Epexegesis [ep-ek-si-**jee**-sis] ﻿Definition Adding words or phrases to further clarify or specify a statement already made. Examples


 * "It seemed like to me they based some of their decisions on the word of--and the allegations by--people who were held in detention, people who hate America, people that had been trained in some instances to disassemble--that means not tell the truth." (George W. Bush, on an Amnesty International report on prisoner abuse at Guantanamo Bay, Washington, D.C., May 31, 2005)


 * "When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight." (Federal Express advertising slogan)


 * "Epexegesis arises from the fluid condition of language, in which the thought still moves, while it is being expressed, and also from the redundant tendency of Greek, in which symmetry is often sacrificed to fullness and clearness. The act of expression will often suggest some new aspect or point of view, which is added to the construction by an afterthought." (Lewis Campbell, Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments. Clarendon Press, 1871)


 * "Helvetica is a typeface, or more appropriately, the typeface of the 20th century." (Kit Roane, "A Typeface for All Time." U.S. News, August 13, 2007)

Example from "The Ring of Time"
 * ﻿"we spectators were experiencing a languor--we neither expected relief nor felt entitled to any." (pg. 178)