Homeoteleuton

Repetition of endings of words in poetry
Homeoteleuton, also spelled homoeoteleuton and homoioteleuton (from the Greek ὁμοιοτέλευτον, homoioteleuton, "like ending"), is the repetition of endings in words. Homeoteleuton is also known as near rhyme.

Today, homeoteleuton denotes more than Aristotle's original definition.

In the field of palaeography and textual criticism, homeoteleuton has also come to mean a form of copyist error present in ancient texts. A scribe would be writing out a new copy of a frequently reproduced book, such as the Bible. As the scribe was reading the original text, his eyes would skip from one word to the same word on a later line, leaving out a line or two in the transcription. When transcripts were made of the scribe's flawed copy (and not the original) errors are passed on into posterity. An example of this can be found in the Bible, more specifically in I Samuel 11. The Israelite city of Jabesh Gilead was under siege by the Ammonites:

Then Nahash the Ammonite came up and camped against Jabesh gilead: and all the men of Jabesh said unto Nahash, Make a covenant with us, and we will serve thee. But Nahash the Ammonite answered them, On this condition I will make a covenant with you, that I thrust out all your right eyes, and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel. 1Samuel 11:1 2 (HE)

Prior passages do not explain Nahash's desire to blind the Israelites, and scholars have been unable to explain this punishment in the context of the Bible. A find from the Dead Sea scrolls, the scroll 4QSama, gives the missing beginning to I Samuel 11. Some very recent English translations (such as the TNIV) add the reading in a footnote. Now Nahash, king of the B'nai Ammon (Ammonites), oppressed the B'nai Gad and the B'nai Reuven with force, and he plucked out every right eye. There was no savior for Israel and there remained not a (single) man among the B'nai Israel beyond the Jordan (river) whose right eye Nahash, king of the B'nai Ammon had not plucked out from him. (Now) there were seven contingents delivered from the hand of the B'nai Ammon. They went to Jabesh Gilead. And so it was about a month (later) that