apophasis/paralipsis/preterition
Oct. 14th, 2005 07:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordapophasis aka paralipsis (also paraleipsis) aka preterition - n., alluding to something by denying that it will be mentioned; a pretend or apparent omission.
My favorite dirty rhetorical trick. "I will not mention the rumors that my opponent fornicates with farm animals, because this election is not about character -- it's about the issues, and on the subject of taxes, my opponent is an ass." According to some rhetoricians, these have subtly different meanings, but they disagree betimes on what they are -- for most purposes these are synonyms. I usually use paralipsis myself. Apophasis comes from Greek for to say no, paral(e)ipsis from Greek, leave to one side, and perteration from Latin, passing over.
According to some sources, occultatio is another synonym, but the dictionaries don't seem to have it, so I pass over it.
---L.
My favorite dirty rhetorical trick. "I will not mention the rumors that my opponent fornicates with farm animals, because this election is not about character -- it's about the issues, and on the subject of taxes, my opponent is an ass." According to some rhetoricians, these have subtly different meanings, but they disagree betimes on what they are -- for most purposes these are synonyms. I usually use paralipsis myself. Apophasis comes from Greek for to say no, paral(e)ipsis from Greek, leave to one side, and perteration from Latin, passing over.
According to some sources, occultatio is another synonym, but the dictionaries don't seem to have it, so I pass over it.
---L.
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synosyno
Date: 2005-10-14 08:49 pm (UTC)Re: synosyno
Date: 2005-10-14 10:26 pm (UTC)---L.