From Latin 'circum' (around) + 'locutio' (speech) — talking around a subject rather than addressing it directly.
The use of many words where fewer would do, especially in a deliberate attempt to be vague or evasive. An indirect way of expressing something; a roundabout phrase.
From Latin 'circumlocūtiō' (a speaking around, a roundabout expression), a compound of 'circum-' (around, about, in a circle, from 'circus,' circle, from PIE *sker- / *ker-, to turn) + 'locūtiō' (speech, a manner of speaking, a phrase), from 'locūtus,' past participle of 'loquī' (to speak), from PIE *tolkʷ- (to speak). The term is itself a Latin calque of the Greek 'periphrasis' ('peri-,' around + 'phrazein,' to speak), and both words enter English rhetorical vocabulary to mean the same thing: expressing in many words what could be said in few. 'Circum-' produces 'circumference' (carrying
Charles Dickens invented the 'Circumlocution Office' in his 1857 novel 'Little Dorrit' as a satire on government bureaucracy. The fictional department's motto was 'How Not To Do It,' and its entire purpose was to avoid making decisions by burying every request in paperwork and redirections. Dickens' coinage was so apt that 'circumlocution office' became a common English
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