Word of the Day for Thursday, February 2, 2012
peroration \per-uh-REY-shuhn\, noun:
1. A long speech characterized by lofty and often pompous language.
2. Rhetoric. The concluding part of a speech or discourse, in which the speaker or writer recapitulates the principal points and urges them with greater earnestness and force.
Thus he apostrophised his house and race in terms of the most moving eloquence; but when it came to the peroration—and what is eloquence that lacks a peroration?—he fumbled. He would have liked to have ended with a flourish to the effect that he would follow in their footsteps and add another stone to their building.
-- Virginia Woolf, "Orlando: A Biography"
This person always provides a dramatic peroration; it is expected of him and he seldom disappoints. Tamsour is the theme; and the substance is usually personal aggrandizement, sometimes a bit of self-pity, but never apologies for past misdeeds, real or imaginary.
-- Jack Vance, "Night Lamp"
Peroration comes from the Latin word perōrātiōn which meant "a closing speech."
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