Epanorthosis


An epanorthosis is a figure of speech that signifies emphatic word replacement. "Thousands, no, millions!" is a stock example. Epanorthosis as immediate and emphatic self-correction often follows a Freudian slip.

Etymology

The word, attested 1570, is from Ancient Greek epanórthōsis "correcting, revision" < epí + anorthóō "restore, rebuild" < ana- "up" + orthóō "straighten" < orthós "straight, right".

Examples

The words in italics are technically the epanorthoses, but all the words following the dash may be considered part of the epanorthosis as well. Striking through words is another way of demonstrating such an effect.
In Aviation English phraseology, the word "correction" must be explicitly used: "climb to reach Flight Level 290 at time 58 — correction at time 55".
A modern variant is the use of ^H to suggest a backspace, or ^W to suggest deletion of the preceding word. Both may be repeated as necessary.