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Elegant variation is a writer's substitution of "one word for another for the sake of variety". The term was introduced in 1906 by H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler in ''
The King's English ''The King's English'' is a book on English usage and grammar. It was written by the brothers Henry Watson Fowler and Francis George Fowler and published in 1906; it thus predates by twenty years '' Modern English Usage'', which was written by ...
''. In their meaning of the term, they focus particularly on instances when the word being avoided is a noun or its pronoun. Pronouns are themselves variations intended to avoid awkward repetition, and variations are so often necessary, that they should be used only when needed. The Fowlers recommend that "variations should take place only when there is some awkwardness, such as ambiguity or noticeable monotony, in the word avoided".


History

Henry Fowler's later '' Dictionary of Modern English Usage'', published in 1926, keeps the same definition, but more explicitly cautions against overuse of variations or
synonyms A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are ...
by writers who are "intent on expressing themselves prettily", rather than "conveying their meaning clearly", adding that "there are few literary faults so prevalent." Fowler then quotes examples of when variations should have been used, and when they should not have been used. Since the term was established in 1906, it has been referred to in style and usage guides, but the original meaning has seen a number of variations. For example
Bryan A. Garner Bryan Andrew Garner (born 1958) is an American lawyer, lexicographer, and teacher who has written more than two dozen books about English usage and style such as ''Garner's Modern English Usage'' for a general audience, and others for legal profe ...
suggests that when Fowler uses the word "elegant", he actually means the opposite—"inelegant"—because, according to Garner, at the time Fowler wrote, the word "elegant" was an "almost pejorative" word. Garner also claims that Fowler used the term elegant variation to refer to the "practice of never using the same word twice in the same sentence or passage". That is not Fowler's definition, and, as
Richard W. Bailey Richard Weld Bailey (October 26, 1939 – April 2, 2011) was an American linguist, scholar of the English language, and the Fred Newton Scott Collegiate Professor of English at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Bailey was born in Pontia ...
points out, in misrepresenting Fowler, "Garner has created a linguist made of
straw Straw is an agricultural byproduct consisting of the dry stalks of cereal plants after the grain and chaff have been removed. It makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat. It has a numbe ...
". Nevertheless, following Garner, ''inelegant variation'' has been used by others, including Gerald Lebovits and Wayne Schiess.


Examples

*In ''
A Dictionary of Modern English Usage ''A Dictionary of Modern English Usage'' (1926), by Henry Watson Fowler (1858–1933), is a style guide to British English usage, pronunciation, and writing. Covering topics such as plurals and literary technique, distinctions among like wor ...
'' an example is given of a sentence that would be better with a variation: :H. W. Fowler suggests that sentence would be improved by changing "serious" to "grave", because "seriously" and "serious", in that case, do not relate to the same thing. * In ''The King's English'' (1906), Fowler gives as an example this passage from ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...
'': :In that example, The Emperor, His Majesty, and the Monarch all refer to the same person. Fowler points out that such extreme variations make it difficult to follow the sense of the sentence when the reader is distracted by "wondering what the King will be called next time". If a writer must choose between "monotonous repetition" and "clumsy variation", which are both undesirable, Fowler suggests picking the one that seems natural. * Among sub-editors at ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...
'', "gratuitous synonyms" are called "povs", an acronym of "popular orange vegetables"—a phrase that was removed from the draft of an article about carrots in the ''
Liverpool Echo The ''Liverpool Echo'' is a newspaper published by Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales – a subsidiary company of Reach plc and is based in St Paul's Square, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is published Monday to Sunday, and is Liver ...
''. Charles W. Morton similarly wrote of an "elongated yellow fruit", a presumed synonym of "banana" that was used in the ''
Boston Evening Transcript The ''Boston Evening Transcript'' was a daily afternoon newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts, published from July 24, 1830, to April 30, 1941. Beginnings ''The Transcript'' was founded in 1830 by Henry Dutton and James Wentworth of the firm of D ...
''. * ''Garner's Modern American Usage'' cites examples given by Morton, including "elongated yellow fruit" and others: pool balls ("the numbered spheroids");
Bluebeard "Bluebeard" (french: Barbe bleue, ) is a French folktale, the most famous surviving version of which was written by Charles Perrault and first published by Barbin in Paris in 1697 in '' Histoires ou contes du temps passé''. The tale tells the ...
("the azure-whiskered wifeslayer"); Easter-egg hunt ("hen-fruit safari"); milk ("lacteal fluid"); oysters ("succulent bivalves"); peanut ("the succulent goober"); songbird ("avian songster"); truck ("rubber-tired mastodon of the highway"). *The science fiction writing guide '' Turkey City Lexicon'' calls elegant variations the "Burly Detective" Syndrome after the character Mike Shayne who is called by euphemisms such as "the burly detective" or "the red-headed sleuth" in the series.


A French language example

In
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
the use of ''elegant variations'' is considered essential for good style. A humorist imagined writing a news article about
Gaston Defferre Gaston Defferre (14 September 1910 – 7 May 1986) was a French Socialist politician. He served as mayor of Marseille for 33 years until his death in 1986. He was minister for overseas territories in Guy Mollet’s socialist government in 1956â ...
: "It's OK to say Defferre once, but not twice. So next you say the Mayor of Marseille. Then, the Minister of Planning. Then, the husband of Edmonde. Then, Gaston. Then, Gastounet and then ... · Well, then you stop talking about him because you don't know what to call him next."; cited and translated in


See also

*
Antonomasia In rhetoric, antonomasia is a kind of metonymy in which an epithet or phrase takes the place of a proper name, such as "the little corporal" for Napoleon I; or, conversely, the use of a proper name as an archetypal name, to express a generic idea ...
, the use of an epithet to name a person *
Kenning A kenning ( Icelandic: ) is a figure of speech in the type of circumlocution, a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English ...
*
Pleonasm Pleonasm (; , ) is redundancy in linguistic expression, such as "black darkness" or "burning fire". It is a manifestation of tautology by traditional rhetorical criteria and might be considered a fault of style. Pleonasm may also be used for em ...
* Purple prose *
Thesaurus A thesaurus (plural ''thesauri'' or ''thesauruses'') or synonym dictionary is a reference work for finding synonyms and sometimes antonyms of words. They are often used by writers to help find the best word to express an idea: Synonym diction ...
*
Verbosity Verbosity or verboseness is speech or writing that uses more words than necessary. The opposite of verbosity is plain language. Some teachers, including the author of ''The Elements of Style'', warn against verbosity; similarly Mark Twain and Er ...


References


Citations


Sources

*


External links


''The King's English'', Chapter III
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elegant Variation Language varieties and styles