Periergia (pe-ri-er’-gi-a): Overuse of words or figures of speech. As such, it may simply be considered synonymous with macrologia. However, as Puttenham’s term suggests, periergia may differ from simple superfluity in that the language appears over-labored.
The unchained melody climbed the staircase of my mind, skipping a step every two steps, like a frog in full-hop on the slanted plane. I felt like a rubber boot starring in a 21st century version of Cinderella; a boot that was “gripping” in its performance, as the eiderdown-like like dust blowing in the window made things slippery and threatened me with a fall. I laid on the dirty sticky floor, rather than fall on its splattered remnants of spilled food, alcoholic beverages, and fragments of plastic toys.
Suddenly, I woke up in the bathtub choking on soapy grey water. My tiny tugboat had sunk and the tub’s water was lukewarm like urine.
Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).
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