Ploce (PLO-see or PLO-kee, from Greek ploke =
weaving, plaiting, twisting) carries the general sense of
repeating a single word for emphasis. Summarizing much current
usage, Gideon Burton (rhetoric.byu.edu) writes that "Ploce is
a general term and has sometimes been used in place of more
specific terms such as polyptoton (when the repetition
involves a change in the form of the word) or antanaclasis
(when the repetition involves a change in meaning)." The
overlap with antanaclasis can be heard in the definition of
the OED: "The repetition of a word in an altered or
more expressive sense, or for the sake of emphasis." Richard
Nordquist (thoughtco.com) similarly emphasizes this element of
altered meaning: "the repetition of a word or name, often with
a different sense, after the intervention of one or more other
words."
But neither of these resources mentions a specific kind of
altered meaning that was once, it seems, commonly associated
with ploce. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the figure
as "emphatic repetition of a word with particular reference to
its special significance (as in 'a wife who was a wife
indeed')." The ifioque.com website calls it "a form of speech
which consists in the repetition of the same word to signify
in one place the subject (person or thing), and in the other
the attribute of the person or thing, such as morals, or
general qualities."
Two of the earliest English works on rhetoric suggest that
this sense of the term was once more widespread. Henry
Peacham remarks that "Ploce is a forme of speech by
which a proper name being repeated, signifieth another thing."
John
Smith goes into more detail, calling it "A figure when a
word is by way of Emphasis so repeated, that it denotes not
only the thing signified, but the quality of the thing: Hereby
the proper name of any man well known, being repeated,
signifies the nature and permanent quality of the man, whose
name it is." Peacham cites several examples from antiquity:
"Yet at that day Memmius was Memmius: in the first place
Memmius is the proper name of a man, but in the second, it
signifieth his manners, which were well knowne"; “In that
great victorie Caesar was Caesar, that is, a mercifull
conquerer”; "Cicero continued Cicero unto the day of his
death, meaning, a lover of his countrey, and a most faithfull
patrone of the common wealth.”
§ Joyce's
sentence demonstrates this ancient principle of converting a
proper name into qualities commonly associated with the name.
Nannetti and Cuprani are "More Irish than the Irish":
they will say or do anything to seem Irish, even things that
actual Irish people would not do or say. Bloom is thinking of
comparatively recent immigrations from the Continent, but the
expression recalls Ireland's longstanding experience of being
invaded by settlers from England, Wales, and Scotland. Slote
observes that although the Latin phrase Hiberniores ipsis
Hibernis was coined in the 18th century, the sentiment
goes back to John Lynch's 17th century work Cambrensis
Eversus. Lynch, an Irish Catholic historian, observed
that the descendants of the 12th century Anglo-Norman invaders
did not establish a new culture but instead adopted Irish
language, names, dress, and ways of life. In his essay
"Ireland: Island of Saints and Sages," Joyce said the same
thing about later waves of immigrants from the east: "It was
the Protestants, who had now become Hibernicis ipsis
Hibernior, more Irish than the Irish themselves, that
were inciting the Irish Catholics to oppose the Calvinist and
Lutheran fanatics from across the water."
