[Loch-Ruadh] word of the day

[Jane Sitton]

Your daily vocabulary lesson: peripeteia * \peh-ruh-puh-TEE-uh or
peh-ruh-puh-TYE-uh\ * (noun) : a sudden or unexpected reversal of
circumstances or situation especially in a literary work
Example sentence:  In the last act of the play, the king's decision to
avenge his brother leads to an abrupt peripeteia that leaves him bereft of
his throne and his family.
Did you know? "Peripeteia" comes from Greek, in which the verb "peripiptein"
means "to fall around" or "to change suddenly."  It usually indicates a
turning point in a drama after which the plot moves steadily to its
denouement.  In his Poetics, Aristotle describes the peripeteia as the shift
of the tragic protagonist's fortune from good to bad - a shift that is
essential to the plot of a tragedy.  But the term is also used to refer to a
protagonist's shift from bad fortune to good in a comedy.