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contextomy
Sep. 13th, 2018 08:01 amcontextomy (kon-TEKS-tuh-mee) - n., misquoting by shortening the quotation or by leaving out surrounding words or sentences that would place the quotation in context.
This can range from a movie ad that claims it's been called "a small masterpiece" when the reviewer actually said the credits were "a small masterpiece of dementia", to ordinary quote-mining to present bits out of context to smear someone. Though "ordinary" is not the best adjective to use for, for example, taking bits from the Talmud that present an argument to be refuted and using them to portray it as advocating greed, slavery, and ritual murder, as Nazi propaganda regularly did. Regardless, the phrase "quote out of context" is pretty old, this coinage is from the mid-1960s, from context + -tomy, Greek-root suffix meaning cutting (as in appendectomy, the cutting out of the appendix).
---L.
This can range from a movie ad that claims it's been called "a small masterpiece" when the reviewer actually said the credits were "a small masterpiece of dementia", to ordinary quote-mining to present bits out of context to smear someone. Though "ordinary" is not the best adjective to use for, for example, taking bits from the Talmud that present an argument to be refuted and using them to portray it as advocating greed, slavery, and ritual murder, as Nazi propaganda regularly did. Regardless, the phrase "quote out of context" is pretty old, this coinage is from the mid-1960s, from context + -tomy, Greek-root suffix meaning cutting (as in appendectomy, the cutting out of the appendix).
---L.
