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Bdelygmia

Rhetorical Devices
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A vehement expression of disgust, hatred, or contempt. It attacks its subject through forceful denunciation.

Detailed Definition
Bdelygmia is an outburst of loathing that heaps scornful descriptions upon a person, institution, action, or condition. In poetry, it may condemn war, hypocrisy, tyranny, betrayal, or moral decay through harsh imagery and accumulating abuse. The device differs from mild satire because it aims to make readers feel revulsion as well as judgment. Its passionate excess can create a voice of righteous anger, though poets may also use it to reveal a speaker’s bias, cruelty, or loss of control.
Example
Example in poetry:
Catullus uses bdelygmia in poems that heap contemptuous insults on enemies and faithless figures; Pope’s “The Dunciad” attacks literary dullness through a sustained catalogue of foolish writers and cultural decay; “O tyrant, thief of sleep, eater of bread meant for children, rust on every promise” builds hatred through a piling list of abuses; “You liar, leech, crow at the ruined field, you feed on every sorrow you create” directs a series of disgusted insults at an enemy; “Away with your polished lies, your borrowed crown, your hands that bless and steal” combines condemnation and revulsion in an accusatory poetic address
Additional Notes
Bdelygmia is an intense, often extended outburst of revulsion or contempt directed at a person, institution, vice, or object. It commonly relies on insult, accusation, catalogues of faults, and harsh sound patterns to build force. Unlike measured satire, bdelygmia is openly furious; it may overlap with invective, vituperation, and diatribe.
Also Known As
Bdelygmy Abominatio
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