polyptoton

Etymology

(Traditional) Gk. poly, "many" + ptosis, "[grammatical] case"

Synonyms, partial synonyms, and alternate spellings

adnominatio, many inflections, paragmenon, polyptolon, the tranlacer, traductio, transplacement

Definition

The occurrence of the same lexical stem with different derivational affixes, a change of lexical class, or other lexicomorphological alteration(s).

[A]fter seeing a movie about a clown who cried through his laughter, or laughed through his tears—we couldn’t tell which—even Paul felt discombobulated. (Child & Prud’homme 2007: 30)