English

Alternative forms

Noun

homœophony ‎(uncountable)

1. (chiefly of two or more words) Phonic similarity; the quality of being similar-sounding.
   • 1845: Plato and Tayler Lewis [tr. & comment.], Plato Contra Atheos: Plato Against the Atheists, page 203

     It may be styled euphonic, because it seems to affect words solely for the sake of euphony, or, rather, homœophony, and on the mere ground of contiguity in location, although very remotely related in all other respects; so much so, that, in this way, great violence is sometimes done to the true grammatical construction.

   • 1847: Julius Charles Hare and Augustus William Hare, Guesses at Truth, page 149

     In such expressions as my father and myself, my brother and myself, we are misled by homœophony: but the old song begining “My father, my mother, and I,” may teach us what is the idiomatic, and also the correct usage.

   • 1862: Joseph Francis Thrupp, The Song of Songs: A Revised Translation with Introduction and Commentary, page 95

     The strongest commendation of the Hebrew reading now submitted for trial as the original is the homœophony it exhibits between the etymologically unconnected words שֶׁמִּנִּי,‎ שֶׁמֶן, and שְׁמֶךָ, and also between תּוּרַק and קְטוּרִים (the latter being strictly the past participle from קטר, used in the Piel and Hiphil). Such homœophony is in full accordance with the genius of Hebrew poetry: we have a remarkable instance of it in iv. 2, שֶׁכֻּלָּם and וְשַׁכֻּלָּה: see also iv. 4; vi. 2; vii. 2 (3); viii. 6.

   • 1877: Johann Peter Lange and Philip Schaff, A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Critical, Doctrinal, and Homilectical, with Special Reference to Ministers and Students, volume 5: “Samuel”, page 194 (C. Scribner & Co.)

     hither and thither. It is better to supply “hither” (הֲלֹם before וַהֲלֹם), which might easily have fallen out from homœophony; or (with the Rabb. and Ges.) read the Inf. Abs. and render “were more and more broken up.”

Related terms

• homœophone

References

• “homœophony” defined as a derived term of the prefix “homœo-”, listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2^nd Ed.; 1989]