30
votes
Is there a specific term for nullifying an intentional insult by accepting it as a compliment?
This is called Reappropriation or Reclamation.
In sociology and cultural studies, reappropriation or reclamation is the cultural process by which a group reclaims terms or artifacts that were ...
- 6,433
17
votes
Is there a literary term for a word which looks completely 'flat' when spelled out in lowercase?
UCDA gives the technical term (from typography) for single letters like that:
The lowercase letters, which, like the x, have no ascenders or descenders, are known as the primary letters.
Example in ...
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14
votes
Is there a literary term for a word which looks completely 'flat' when spelled out in lowercase?
You may want to look into the feature known as word shape in psycholinguistics. Your example, narc, is composed entirely of "neutral" characters, giving it what you call its "flat" ...
- 24.1k
10
votes
Accepted
Reverse personification
I don't think it is a specific 'literary device', but in general when a person is depicted or treated like an object it is called objectification.
Definition of objectify for English Language ...
- 7,392
10
votes
Is the poetic device in "silence was golden" best described as metaphor or synesthesia?
I should disclose that my pseudonym is a misnomer on both counts, as I am neither a poet nor a musician. However with that having been said, I would suppose that your teacher has devised a silly trick ...
- 4,559
10
votes
Literary devices and sentence structure in Matthew 7:1 (KJV)
The literary device at play in your cited verse is parallelism, much stricter in the original Koiné:
Μὴ κρίνετε ἵνα μὴ κριθῆτε
mē krinete hina mē krithēte
Not (y’all) judge so that not (y’all) should ...
- 28.2k
10
votes
What is the term for this literary device where a name is replaced by a description?
This is commonly called an epithet:
1a: a characterizing word or phrase accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a person or thing
You may also be thinking of a kenning:
: a metaphorical ...
- 7,930
8
votes
Literary devices and sentence structure in Matthew 7:1 (KJV)
Transitivity of "judge not"
Webster's 1828 cites this verse as an example of the transitive form of the verb judge¹:
JUDGE, verb transitive
To censure rashly; to pass severe ...
- 28.5k
8
votes
Literary devices and sentence structure in Matthew 7:1 (KJV)
KariG's answer is very important, though the questioner does not have ready access to it.
The original Greek has absolutely no literary device. It is plain Greek. Translating into the same plain ...
- 11.4k
7
votes
Term for using your own words against you
How about the Shakespearean hoist(ed) by one's own petard?
- 1,300
7
votes
Is the poetic device in "silence was golden" best described as metaphor or synesthesia?
"Silence is golden" is a metaphor. A metaphor is a figure of speech that refers to one thing by mentioning another thing. E.g:
All the world's a stage
On the other hand, synesthesia is a ...
- 4,713
6
votes
Accepted
What is the term used to describe substituting a person for something they did or created?
It appears the closest term with the meaning you desire is deferred reference. To quote from Wikipedia:
In natural language, a deferred reference is the metonymic use of an expression to refer to ...
- 291
6
votes
Is there a literary term for a word which looks completely 'flat' when spelled out in lowercase?
The typographical term for the height of a lowercase letter is the "x-height" - it extends from what is called the baseline (the bottom of most letters) to the mean line (the top of most ...
- 15.2k
5
votes
Is the poetic device in "silence was golden" best described as metaphor or synesthesia?
Hahaha. This very much depends on how you interpret the phrase "Silence is golden."
If you mean "silence is very valuable, just like gold", then it's a simple metaphor. Silence is valuable, gold is ...
- 28.2k
5
votes
Seeking a name for literary device/technique involving denial and hypothetical dialogue
Preterition may fit. Here is the definition in Dupriez, Bernard Marie, and A. W. Halsall (translator). A Dictionary of Literary Devices : Gradus, A-Z. U of Toronto, 1991 (quote from p. 353.):
"A ...
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5
votes
What is the difference between 'transferred epithet' and 'metaphor'?
From ThoughCo:
A transferred epithet is a little known—but often used—figure of speech in which a modifier (usually an adjective) qualifies a noun other than the person or thing it is actually ...
- 46.4k
5
votes
What is the term for using a word to portray a particular idea outside of but close to the context of the original meaning?
This is known as metaphoric extension. As an article from the University of Indiana explains, this involves an "extension of a word's meaning on the basis of similarity."
- 19.6k
4
votes
Accepted
What kind of literary device is this?
Synecdoche is a figure of speech using a part for the whole, the whole for the part, general for specific, or specific for general.
Brass can be all the brass instruments in the orchestra or top ...
- 28.2k
4
votes
Literary term for implied meaning
An implication perhaps?
The conclusion that can be drawn from something although it is not explicitly stated.
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/implication
- 1,062
4
votes
What does "he broke into his hands" mean in The House on Mango Street?
This probably means:
he broke down crying in his hands
After saying "you're not my daughter" two times, he might have felt overwhelmed by the anger.
- 1,161
3
votes
How do I reference Billy Bragg in the following instance?
As suggested in the comments, you would probably call this a play on the title.
to play on (also upon) words (also the word): to pun; to make a play on words.
OED
Using wordplay of this ...
- 22.7k
3
votes
What is the term used to describe substituting a person for something they did or created?
Eponymy
When a thing is named for its creator/discoverer (or anyone else with which it's associated) it's known as eponymy. This is often done via explicit branding, such as Ford automobiles or ...
- 504
3
votes
What is the term used to describe substituting a person for something they did or created?
They are called Placeholder Names
Placeholder names are words that can refer to objects or people whose names are temporarily forgotten, irrelevant, or unknown in the context in which they are ...
- 1,059
3
votes
Is there a name for this literary device from James Baldwin and question about punctuation?
Betwen Anaphora(repetition of the beginning of a sentence) and Epistrophe(repetition of the end of a sentence), consider Anadiplosis (and of course "mesodisplosis" proposed by @StoneyB),
...
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3
votes
Is “Light of moon and ray of star” an idiom?
Eye of newt and toe of frog
If idioms by their words invoke
some special meaning hard to guess,
then no, this turn of phrase you’ll note
has none of that: it’s for the stress.
Instead it turns the ...
- 137k
3
votes
Accepted
What comic device is based on unexpected changes in meaning?
Paraprosdokian:
A paraprosdokian (/pærəprɒsˈdoʊkiən/) is a figure of speech in which
the latter part of a sentence, phrase, or larger discourse is
surprising or unexpected in a way that causes ...
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3
votes
Accepted
Is there a name for this kind of language in prose?
It meets at least one definition of a simile.
Here are a two definitions of simile, which set out the key elements that analysts would look for:
A simile is a figure of speech in which two ...
- 41.7k
3
votes
Is there a literary term for a word which looks completely 'flat' when spelled out in lowercase?
As @Xavier pointed out in a comment, such a word satisfies the prisoner's constraint:
Prisoner's constraint, also called Macao constraint
A type of lipogram that omits letters with ascenders and ...
- 1,773
2
votes
What is the term used to describe substituting a person for something they did or created?
Eponymous was the first word that came to my mind as well, but I don't think any of the answers so far hit the spot. The question isn't about a machine or task named for its creator (eponymy: example =...
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