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Epanorthosis

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An epanorthosis is a figure of speech that signifies emphatic word replacement. The example "thousands, no, millions!" is a stock example. More often, however, epanorthosis signifies immediate and emphatic self-correction, and as such often follows a Freudian slip (either accidental or deliberate).

Examples:

  • "The psychologist known as Sigmund Fraud--Freud, I mean!"
  • "I've been doing this for six weeks!--er, days, that is."

Here the words in italics are technically the epanorthosis, although all of the words following the dash may be considered part of the epanorthosis as well.

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