dormitive virtue

Englisch - Englisch

Definition von dormitive virtue im Englisch Englisch wörterbuch

A type of tautology in which an item is being explained in terms of the item itself, only put in different (usually more abstract) words

Silbentrennung

dormitive vir·tue

Synonyme

dormitive principle

Etymologie

() A calque translation of Latin, virtus dormitiva, coined by Molière in The Imaginary Invalid. In the play, he lampoons a group of physicians providing an explanation in macaronic Latin of the sleep-inducing properties of opium as stemming from its "virtus dormitiva".