• ekphrasis •
Pronunciation: ek-frê-sis • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Vivid, detailed description of a sculpture, painting, or other form of visual art.
Notes: This word is sometimes spelled ecphrasis. The plural, like all Hellenic and Latinate borrowings ending on -sis, is ekphrases. Also like the same set of lexical items, it brings along an adjective ending on -tic, ekphrastic ([ek-fræs-tik]), and an adverb, ekphrastically.
In Play: One of the most beautiful examples of poetic ekphrasis is John Keats's "Ode on a Greek Urn". Ekphrases may be written or oral: "Gloria's part of the conversation was an ekphrasis of the city's architecture that convinced her friend to visit it."
Word History: Today's Good Word was taken straight from Greek ekphrasis "description", created by putting together ek + phrazein "to tell, explain". Greek ek "out, away from" descended from PIE eghs "of, out, from", which became ex "out of" in Latin, and iz "out of" in Russian and Serbo-Croation, and z "out of" in Czech. Phrazein is related to Latin phrasis "diction", which may have been borrowed from Greek. Phrazein seems to be related to phrenos "mind, spirit", which some etymologists link to PIE gwhren- "soul, mind" with a Fickle N. Unfortunately, there is little evidence of this PIE reconstruction elsewhere in the IE languages, only Old Icelandic grunr "suspicion", grunda "to think", and grundr "contemplation". (Today's rather arcane but useful Good Word was suggested by the newest member of our editorial board, George Kovac.)
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