‖ homœoteleuton
(həʊˌmiːəʊtɪˈl(j)uːtɒn)
Also homoio-.
[Late L., a. Gr. ὁµοιοτέλευτον (sc. ῥῆµα), f. ὅµοιο-ς like + τελευτή end, ending.]
1. A rhetorical figure consisting in the use of a series of words with the same or similar endings.
| 1586 A. Day Eng. Secretary ii. (1625) 86 Omoioteliton..when words and sentences in one sort doe finish together, as thus; Weeping, wailing, and her hands wringing, she moved all..to pittie. 1678 in Phillips. 1721 in Bailey. |
2. The occurrence of similar endings in two neighbouring words, clauses, or lines of writing, as a source of error in copying.
| 1861 Scrivener Crit. N.T. (1883) 9 Or a genuine clause is lost by means of what is technically called Homœoteleuton..when the clause ends in the same word as closed the preceding sentence, and the transcriber's eye has wandered from the one to the other, to the entire omission of the whole passage lying between them. 1896 Eng. Hist. Rev. Apr. 952 It [a clause] fell out..owing to one of the commonest causes of such omissions in manuscripts, a homoioteleuton. |
So † hoˈmœoteleft (for -teleut), a word having a similar ending to another (obs.). ˌhomœoteˈleutic a., (a) having similar endings; (b) resulting, as an error, from homœoteleuton.
| 1652 Urquhart Jewel Wks. (1834) 211 Would wish presbytery were of as empty a sound, as its homœoteleft Blitery. 1880 Muirhead Ulpian xxiv. §24 note, Most eds...agree that the non..should be deleted. Hu. retains it by assuming a homeoteleutic omission. 1890 Athenæum 2 Aug. 161/3 A half-mythical rhyming history of the Norman dukes, written in homœoteleutic lines. |