Distributio (dis-tri-bu’-ti-o): (1) Assigning roles among or specifying the duties of a list of people, sometimes accompanied by a conclusion. (2) Sometimes this term is simply a synonym for diaeresis or merismus, which are more general figures involving division.
Here’s the breakdown: Pat, you take care of the garden hose. Nimmy, put the mower away. Joey, you go ahead and complain about how “labor intensive” it is to put things away.
By the way, your bedroom’s scattered worldly goods are crying out to be picked up and put away–but you ignore them. Listen to their pleading voices, and also, your laundry basket is tearfully telling you it feels “empty inside.”
No wonder! It is empty inside. Take pity on your laundry basket. Fill it up, carry it to the laundry room, put your laundry in the washer, let it wash. Dry it in the dryer and return it to its habitat: your bedroom closet, your bedroom dresser, and the hook on the back of your bedroom door.
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Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).
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