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Joined: Jul 2001
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stranger
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OP
stranger
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 1 |
I'm looking for a word that means: to state something indirectly by saying that you're not going to mention it, i.e. "I am going to discuss Ted Kennedy tonight without making any references to the tragic death of Mary Jo Kopechne."
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 328
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 328 |
I think the word you want is apophasis.
a·poph·a·sis (ə-pŏf'ə-sĭs)
n.
Allusion to something by denying that it will be mentioned, as in I will not bring up my opponent's questionable financial dealings.
[Late Latin, from Greek, from apophanai, to say no : apo-, apo- + phanai, to say.]
From Atomica
Thanks to bridget96 for introducing me to this term in one of her posts. Hope you're back soon, b!
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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jimbo
welcome to the board! Thanks for asking, now I know there is a word to describe that wily way of stating something indirectly by saying that you're not going to mention it.
Rapunzel Thanks again for the info. Now tell me, at a party will they run away in droves if I say "you have just committed an apophasis"? Oh, the richness of the language!
chronist
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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at a party will they run away in droves if I say "you have just committed an apophasis"? Rapunzel, what a great idea ! The next time I'm bored to tears at a gathering I am going to say : "I hate to mention my condition but I must leave. My chronic apophasis is acting up."  Hello jimbo! Wecome to the Board. Thanks for a neat query. 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear wow: remember Walter Mitty: "Coreopsis is setting in."
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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apophasis
And I was going to say parale(i)psis
My favorite example was from the comic strip Miss Peach (names made up to protect my forgetfulness):
Lester: I have to go to the principal's office for that fight we got into.
Fred: You are not to mention my involvement in the fight.
Lester (in principal's office): There was George, Patty, Frank and Bill, not to mention Fred.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Thanks Dr. Bill. Sounds like (with the minor exception of {possibly} parantheticalizing the wrong vowel) I was right.
A red letter day!
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055 |
Can someone explain to me why the definitions of apophasis seem to be so fundamentally between AHD and the rhetoric web site?!
A figure of reasoning is certainly a long way from the tongue-in-cheek irony that, we are all now sure is known as 'paral#psis, ..or cataphasis, or ...
note: please replace the hash sign with the vowel(s) of your choice :-)
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Carpal Tunnel
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please replace the hash sign with the vowel(s) of your choice :-) Works better with hash, Romeo But in non-answering agreement with your puzzlement, for convenience of discussion here are some of the terms’ daftinitions™ laid out sidle by sidle (with a nother rudd hiring): ApophasisThe rejection of several reasons why a thing should or should not be done and affirming a single one, considered most valid. http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Figures/APOPHASIS.htmApophasis (noun) Allusion to something by denying that it will be mentioned, as in I will not bring up my opponent's questionable financial dealings. [Late Latin, from Greek, from apophanai, to say no : apo-, apo- + phanai, to say.] The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. ParalipsisStating and drawing attention to something in the very act of pretending to pass it over. A kind of irony. http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Figures/PARALIPSIS.htmCataphasisA kind of paralipsis in which one explicitly affirms the negative qualities that one then passes over. Example: I will say nothing here of his fraudulent practices. http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Figures/CATAPHASIS.htmAffirmation1. English equivalent of cataphasis2. English equivalent of affirmatio a general figure of emphasis that describes when one states something as though it had been in dispute or in answer to a question, though it has not been. http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Redirect/AFFIRMATION.htmAntiphrasisIrony of one word, often derisively through patent contradiction. Also, a synonym for paralipsis (Quintilian). Example - Referring to a tall person: "Now there's a midget for you" http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Figures/ANTIPHRASIS.htm
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