periphrasis

Prince Bumpo, the heir to the throne, is a mooncalf who mistakes fairy tales for real life, speaks in Elizabethan periphrasis and murmurs to himself: “If only I were a white prince!”

From New York Times ● Sep. 9, 2020

This periphrasis so fascinated Charles W. Morton, now the associate editor of the Atlantic, that he began collecting examples of "Elongated Yellow Fruit" writing.

From Time Magazine Archive

Oddly, they all speak the same puckish periphrasis.

From Time Magazine Archive

“The investiture of the ‘twice-born’—a common periphrasis for a Brahman—of a mystical triple cord, or rather a thread diversely re-triplicated up to the number ninety-six, is understood to be a purifying rite.

From Cultus Arborum Phallic Tree Worship by Anonymous

And with this happy periphrasis, our friend admitted his defeat.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 05, No. 28, February, 1860 by Various

In ordinary conversation do not seek periphrases, subtleties, or figures of speech.

From George Washington's Rules of Civility Traced to their Sources and Restored by Moncure D. Conway by Conway, Moncure Daniel

But the reason why Christianity uses these periphrases or metaphors, these euphemisms for death, is the opposite of the reason why the world uses them.

From Expositions of Holy Scripture: Romans Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V) by Maclaren, Alexander

He that hath complex ideas without names for them, wants liberty and dispatch in his expressions, and is necessitated to use periphrases.

From An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 2 MDCXC, Based on the 2nd Edition, Books 3 and 4 by Locke, John

This young man had a scorn of periphrases.

From Demos by Gissing, George

The simple, concrete phrases of daily speech had given way to stately periphrases; the rich and riotous vocabulary of earlier poetry had been replaced by one more decorous, measured, and high-sounding.

From Lady of the Lake by Moody, William Vaughn