Wednesday, March 30

Drawing attention to something while claiming to be passing over it

Eugene Volokh mentions paralipsis and apophasis; the latter gets more google hits and merits a definition in The American Heritage® Dictionary:
Allusion to something by denying that it will be mentioned, as in I will not bring up my opponent's questionable financial dealings.
In addition, paralipsis is defined as:
  • A pretended or apparent omission; a figure by which a speaker artfully pretends to pass by what he really mentions; as, for example, if an orator should say, "I do not speak of my adversary's scandalous venality and rapacity, his brutal conduct, his treachery and malice."
  • suggesting by deliberately concise treatment that much of significance is omitted

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