Eloquence
Eloquence (from Latin eloquentia) is fluent, forcible, elegant or persuasive speaking in public. It is primarily the power of expressing strong emotions in striking and appropriate language, thereby producing conviction or persuasion. The term is also used for writing in a fluent style.
Some people say that eloquence is a talent and a gift of nature. Others are of the opinion that it could be acquired by exercise and study. Most people would agree that it is impossible for eloquent persons to affect their hearers in any degree without being affected by themselves.
"True eloquence," Oliver Goldsmith says, does not consist ... in saying great things in a sublime style, but in a simple style; for there is, properly speaking, no such thing as a sublime style, the sublimity lies only in the things; and when they are not so, the language may be turgid, affected, metaphorical, but not affecting." (Of Eloquence, 1759)
The opposite of eloquence is called maloquence, i.e. the butchery of language, rampant malapropism, use of inappropriately unwieldy words and forms of words.
See also Oratory, Oration, Rhetoric, Speech
Referenced By
Conversation | Speak | Speaking | Speech | Spoken | Talking
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