Scesis Onomaton (ske’-sis-o-no’-ma-ton): 1. A sentence constructed only of nouns and adjectives (typically in a regular pattern). 2. A series of successive, synonymous expressions.
1. Life good, death bad, high good, low bad, happy good, sad bad. Vexed opposites. Vexed insofar as the qualities of the oppositions are seemingly steady. But it isn’t so. Today, on Memorial Day it is good to be sad: indifference to our military’s sacrifices would be criminal and dancing on their graves would be worse. We are left with gratitude: a sort of sadness (in this case) accompanied by a realization of the goods preserved by their deaths as well as the sorrow felt by families and friends that testifies to their love: the struggle with absence and the unavoidable question: What would they be doing now?
2. Where’s my water pipe? I can’t find my toker stoker. Definitely disappeared. Check the cat’s toy basket. It won’t be the first time that something lost has turned up there. Remember my sock and my car keys?
Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).
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