Graecismus (gree-kis’-mus): Using Greek words, examples, or grammatical structures. Sometimes considered an affectation of erudition.
I was hit in the face by yet another enthymeme: “It’s late. You should go home.” I was getting tired of not having the missing premise made explicit. Why do I have to go home because it’s late? In this particular case, what’s the persuasive pull? Do I have to get up early in the morning? Are you just trying to get rid of me? Are you tired? All of the above? Or, are you just giving me a recurring dictate drawn from your bossy-boots topoi?
So: Now I am mad. Now I’m going home. I am going home because I’m mad. Want the missing premise? Anger induces people to separate, and there are probably two-hundred further reasons linked to that one. On that note, you could sling a sorites as wide as Oklahoma and project a towering ethos like Abraham Lincoln or Mother Theresa. Pathos would ooze from your project and you would probably win an award for a tome on something like “The Roots of Persuasive Home-Going Admonitions in Post-Modern North American Culture.”
Do you know what sarcasm is? I do.
Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).
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