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accismus (ak-SIZ-muhs) - n., feigned refusal or indifference to something earnestly desired.
Often specifically, in rhetoric, the ironic use of this -- but it can also be played straight in real life. Wikipedia notes that, culturally, accismus may sometimes be considered as virtue, or at least polite, and sometimes as vice. As a rhetorical term, it's from Greek via Latin, from akkismos, which seems to have originally meant something like prudery (but ancient sources offer alternative interpretations).
---L.
Often specifically, in rhetoric, the ironic use of this -- but it can also be played straight in real life. Wikipedia notes that, culturally, accismus may sometimes be considered as virtue, or at least polite, and sometimes as vice. As a rhetorical term, it's from Greek via Latin, from akkismos, which seems to have originally meant something like prudery (but ancient sources offer alternative interpretations).
---L.
