- phrase (n.)
- 1520s, "manner or style of expression," also "group of words with some unity," from Late Latin phrasis "diction," from Greek phrasis "speech, way of speaking, enunciation, phraseology," from phrazein "to express, tell," from phrazesthai "to consider," from PIE *gwhren- "to think" (see frenetic). The musical sense of "short passage" is from 1789.
- phrase (v.)
- "to put into a phrase," 1560s; see phrase (n.). Related: Phrased; phrasing.
