Traductio (tra-duk’-ti-o): Repeating the same word variously throughout a sentence or thought. Some authorities restrict traductio further to mean repeating the same word but with a different meaning (see ploce, antanaclasis, and diaphora), or in a different form (polyptoton). If the repeated word occurs in parallel fashion at the beginnings of phrases or clauses, it becomes anaphora; at the endings of phrases or clauses, epistrophe.
I couldn’t stop laughing—laughing at the road sign, laughing at the dirty windows, laughing at my laughter like some meta-comic critic assessing “funny’s” final stand. This was beyond funny. It was hilarious. I shouldn’t have left her laughing by the side of the road, but she was eclipsing me, she put me in the shadows, she made me mad. I guess I better go back and pick her up and see if she’s still laughing. If she is, I may run her down.
Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).
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