phraseology

From Ancient Greek φράσις (phrásis, “speech”) + λόγος (lógos, “explanation”).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /fɹeɪziˈɑləd͡ʒi/, /fɹeɪzˈɑləd͡ʒi/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fɹeɪziˈɒləd͡ʒɪ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒlədʒi

phraseology (usually uncountable, plural phraseologies)

1. Study of set or fixed expressions.
2. The style in which words and phrases are used in writing or speech.
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter III, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 28:

     I was riding through the forest, when suddenly (pray correct my phraseology if too worldly—you know I am not well read in these epics of the heart) I saw a knight and his lady traversing one of the glades; the golden sunshine fell athwart the green leaves, and showed their white steeds and whiter plumes, while the air around grew musical with their gentle words and laughter.

3. A group of specialized words and expressions used by a particular group.
   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “An Interview”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 209:

     Fortunately, two servants she had brought with her, were devotedly attached to their mistress; and the others only entering her apartments at rare intervals, did not understand her mystic allusions; and she now, more than ever, affected to veil her meaning under the mysterious phraseology so much adopted by the Jacobites.

   • 1846, unknown, “On the Theory of Photographic Action”, in Scientific American‎^[1], volume 2, number 13, page 104:

     Light is, therefore, only an attendant circumstance in the production of the photo­graphic picture; and this seems proved by the fact of one body impressing its image upon another in the dark, when the bodies are ap­proximated at what, in electrical phraseology, is called the striking distance.

   • 1956 April, K. H. Rudolph, “Fun with "'Bradshaw"”, in Railway Magazine, page 253:

     Railway grouping had caused some peculiarly Scottish phraseology to disappear, though the note "Stops on timous notice to the guard" survived until comparatively recently.

4. A collection of phrases; a phrasebook.

• terminology

• phraseology on Wikipedia.Wikipedia