Polyptoton
Pattern
Xn, Xm — same root, different forms
Definition
Repetition of words derived from the same root but in different forms or with different endings.
Examples
Example 1
With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder.
Shakespeare, Richard II (Act 2, Scene 1)
"Feeding," "food," and "feeder" are three grammatical forms of the same root, densely packed
Example 2
Judge not, that ye be not judged.
Matthew 7:1 (KJV)
"Judge" (imperative) and "judged" (past participle) shift the word's grammatical form to mirror moral reciprocity
Example 3
She loved him with a love that was more than love.
Edgar Allan Poe, "Annabel Lee"
"Loved" (verb) and "love" (noun, twice) repeat the root in different forms
AI Detection Note
Uncommon in AI text. LLMs tend to use synonyms rather than morphological variants of the same root, missing the cohesive effect of polyptoton.
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