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apophasis: msg#00011culture.language.word-of-the-day
**************************************************************** You don't have to go back to school to gain access to the latest language information! Try a free trial subscription to Merriam-Webster Unabridged! http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/unabridged_sub.pl?refr=U_wod **************************************************************** The Word of the Day for September 12 is: apophasis \uh-PAH-fuh-sis\ noun : the raising of an issue by claiming not to mention it Example sentence: "And I won't even mention my opponent's dismal record on environmental issues," said the candidate, using apophasis to take a jab at her rival. Did you know? Apophasis is a sly debater's trick, a way of sneaking an issue into the discussion while maintaining plausible deniability. It should come as no surprise, then, that the roots of "apophasis" lie in the concept of denial -- the word was adopted into English from Late Latin, where it means "repudiation," and derives from the Greek "apophanai," meaning "to deny." ("Apophanai," in turn, comes from "apo-," meaning "away from" or "off," and "phanai," meaning "to say.") This particular rhetorical stunt is also known by the labels "preterition" and "paraleipsis" (which is a Greek word for "omission"), but those words are rarer than "apophasis." Incidentally, don't confuse "apophasis" with "apophysis"; the latter is a scientific word for an expanded or projecting part of an organism. |
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