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Metaphrase
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<p>Metaphrase is a term referring to <a href="/facts/Literal_translation/0cF1oFRh">literal translation</a>, i.e., "word by word and line by line" <a href="/facts/Translation/2foI82so">translation</a>. In everyday usage, metaphrase means literalism; however, metaphrase is also the translation of poetry into prose. Unlike "<a href="/facts/Paraphrase/YQuQNPcn">paraphrase</a>," which has an ordinary use in literature theory, the term "metaphrase" is only used in <a href="/facts/Translation_theory/A00gIACI">translation theory</a>. </p><p>Metaphrase is one of the three ways of transferring, along with <a href="/facts/Paraphrase/YQuQNPcn">paraphrase</a> and imitation, according to <a href="/facts/John_Dryden/dbRd7w9s">John Dryden</a>. Dryden considers paraphrase preferable to metaphrase (as literal translation) and imitation. </p><p>The term <i>metaphrase</i> was first used by <a href="/facts/Philo_Judaeus/Ieyu5Igv">Philo Judaeus</a> (20 BCE) in <i>De vita Mosis</i>. <a href="/facts/Quintilian/b1jMLAbI">Quintilian</a> draws a distinction between metaphrase and paraphrase in the <a href="/facts/Pedagogy/t1LIfLeC">pedagogical</a> practice of imitation and reworking of classical texts; he points out that metaphrase changes a word, and paraphrase, a phrase: a distinction that is also followed by Renaissance scholars. </p> Look up <i>metaphrase</i> in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.