dormitive virtue

Meaning

Noun

• A type of tautology in which an item is explained in terms of the item itself, only put in different (usually more abstract) words.

Related

Similar words

• dormitive principle

Origin

• A calque translation of Latin, virtus dormitiva, coined by Molière in The Imaginary Invalid. In the play, he lampoons a group of physicians providing an explanation in macaronic Latin of the sleep-inducing properties of opium as stemming from its "virtus dormitiva".