An ornate, exaggerated style of writing popular in 16th-century England, characterized by clever wordplay, elaborate metaphors, and balanced sentences.
Named after Euphues, the protagonist of John Lyly's 1578 novel, whose refined and affected manner of speaking gave his name to this literary style.
Euphuism was the original 'extra' writing style—16th-century writers used puns, alliteration, and wild metaphors so aggressively that Queen Elizabeth I's court absolutely loved it, making bad taste fashionable!
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