Aposiopesis is a figure of speech wherein a sentence is deliberately broken off and left unfinished, the ending to be supplied by the imagination, giving an impression of unwillingness or inability to continue. An example would be the threat "Get out, or else—!" This device often portrays its users as overcome with passion or modesty. To mark the occurrence of aposiopesis with punctuation, an em-rule or an ellipsis may be used.
Examples
One classical example of aposiopesis in Virgil occurs in Aeneid 1.135. Neptune, the Roman god of the Sea, is angry with the winds, whom Juno released to start a storm and harass the Trojan hero and protagonist Aeneas. Neptune berates the winds for causing a storm without his approval, but breaks himself off mid-threat:
Iam caelum terramque meō sine nūmine, ventī, miscēre et tantās audētis tollere mōlēs? quōs ego—sed mōtōs praestat compōnere flūctūs.
Now, winds, you dare to embroil the sky and the earth without my approval, and raise up such a mass? You whom, I—! But it is better to settle the agitated waves.
Another example in Virgil occurs in the Aeneid 2.100. Sinon, the Greek who is posing as a defector to deceive the Trojans into accepting the Trojan Horse within their city wall, tells about how Ulixes
hinc mihi prima malis labes, hinc semper Vlixes criminibus terrere nouis, hinc spargere uoces in uulgum ambiguas et quaerere conscius arma. nec requieuit enim, donec Calchante ministro—
This was the time when the first onslaught of ruin began for me. Ulixes kept terrifying me with new accusations, kept spreading ambiguous rumors among the people, and kept looking for quarrel. Nor did he in fact ever stop, until with the help of Calchas—
A biblical example is found in Psalm 27, verse 13. It says: "Unless I had believed I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living …" The implication is that the author does not know what he would have done.
King Lear, overcome by anger at his daughters, says:
No, you unnatural hags, I will have such revenges on you both, That all the world shall— I will do such things,— What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be The terrors of the earth.
Aposiopesis also occurs at the agitated climax of Mercutio's "Queen Mab" speech, resulting in a calming intervention by Romeo:
Mercutio. This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs, That presses them and learns them first to bear, Making them women of good carriage: This is she— Romeo. Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace! Thou talk'st of nothing.
“Still it behoveth us to win the fight,” Began he; “else... Such offered us herself... O how I long that some one here arrive!”
Grammatical definition
In syntax, an aposiopesis arises when the "if" clause of a condition is stated without an ensuing "then" clause, or apodosis. Because an aposiopesis implies the trailing off of thought, it is never directly followed by a period, which would effectively result in four consecutive dots.
