from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. Persuasive, powerful discourse.
- n. The skill or power of using such discourse.
- n. The quality of persuasive, powerful expression.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. The quality of artistry and persuasiveness in speech or writing.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. Fluent, forcible, elegant, and persuasive speech in public; the power of expressing strong emotions in striking and appropriate language either spoken or written, thereby producing conviction or persuasion.
- n. Fig.: Whatever produces the effect of moving and persuasive speech.
- n. That which is eloquently uttered or written.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The quality of being eloquent; moving utterance or expression; the faculty, art, or act of uttering or employing thoughts and words springing from or expressing strong emotion in a manner to excite corresponding emotion in others; by extension, the power or quality of exciting emotion, sympathy, or interest in any way: as, pulpit eloquence; a speaker, speech, or writing of great eloquence; the eloquence of tears or of silent grief.
- n. That which is expressed in an eloquent manner: as, a flow of eloquence.
- n. Synonyms Elocution, Rhetoric, etc. See oratory.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. powerful and effective language
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Cicero has put almost the same thoughts in different words -- "I consider that, with regard to all precept, the case is this; not that orators by adhering to them have obtained distinction in eloquence, but that certain persons have noticed what men of eloquence have practised of their own accord, and formed rules accordingly; _so that eloquence has not sprung from art, but art from eloquence_."
No, for although some, when they hear the term eloquence, call the thing to mind, even if they are not themselves eloquent -- and further, there are many people who would like to be eloquent, from which it follows that they must know something about it -- nevertheless, these people have noticed through their senses that others are eloquent and have been delighted to observe this and long to be this way themselves.
His treatises _De Inventione_ and _Topica_, the first and nearly the last of his compositions, are both on the invention of arguments, which he regards, with Aristotle, as the very foundation of the art; though he elsewhere confines the term eloquence, according to its derivation, to denote excellence of diction and delivery, to the exclusion of argumentative skill. [
The script is predictably Sorkinian, with rapid fire dialogue batted around like Olympic ping pong balls, rarely stopping, and never allowing for any of the characters to have any of the inevitable lapses in eloquence that plague most humans.
My point, which I am trying to make with equal parts and contempt and eloquence, is that everyone agrees with argument b.
Sometimes long drawn out eloquence is just overkill.
The prime purpose of eloquence is to keep other people from talking.
But eloquence is no substitute for a record -- not in these tough times.
History has shown that vocal eloquence is no weakness, and "rhetoric" was not always a four-letter word.
There is a certain eloquence to bombs, a poetry and a pattern from a safe distance.