Polyptoton



Polyptoton is the stylistic scheme in which words derived from the same root are repeated (e.g. "strong" and "strength"). A related stylistic device is antanaclasis, in which the same word is repeated, but each time with a different sense. In inflected languages polyptoton is the same word being repeated but appearing each time in a different case. (e.g. "Iuppiter," "Iovis," "Iovi," "Iovem," "Iove" [in Latin being the nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, and ablative forms of Iuppiter, respectively]).

Examples

 * "The Greeks are strong, and skillful to their strength, Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant;" William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida I, i, 7-8
 * "With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder." William Shakespeare Richard II II,i,37
 * "Not as a call to battle, though embattled we are." John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961.
 * "Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Franklin Delano Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, March 1933
 * "Thou art of blood, joy not to make things bleed." Sir Philip Sidney
 * "We have been...treading trodden trails for a long, long time." Dave Matthews Band, "So Much to Say", 1996
 * "Working hard or hardly working?" (author unknown)
 * "Say no to no." (author unknown)
 * "Who shall watch the watchmen themselves (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)?" Juvenal
 * "Diamond me no diamonds, prize me no prizes..." Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Lancelot and Elaine
 * "I'm a man who likes talking to a man that likes to talk." [Caspar Gutman to Sam Spade, Chapter XI (The Fat Man) in Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon (1930)]
 * "'Twins close deal for a closer'" (headline in "Minneapolis Star-Tribune, July 30, 2010, about the acquisition by the Minnesota Twins of All-Star relief pitcher Matt Capps)
 * "Stepping steps of floating floats that float above such shining notes they know, just where we should rest." Portugal. The Man, "My Mind" from Church Mouth