Definition:
The mention of something in disclaiming intention of mentioning it--or pretending to deny what is really affirmed. See also:
Etymology:
From the Greek, "denial"Examples:
- "I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another Democrat president, Jimmy Carter. And I’m not blaming this on President Obama. I just think it’s an interesting coincidence."
(Republican Representative Michele Bachmann, April 28, 2009) - "I don't want to say anything bad about another doctor, especially one who's a useless drunk."
(Dr. Gregory House in "Acceptance," House, M.D., 2005) - "Mary Matlin, the Bush campaign's political director, made the point with ruthless venom at a press briefing in Washington, saying, 'The larger issue is that Clinton is evasive and slick. We have never said to the press that he is a philandering, pot-smoking, draft-dodger. There's nothing nefarious or subliminal going on.'"
(reported in The Guardian, 1992) - "I shall ignore the fact that Learning is youth's finest ornament, the strong support of the prime of life, and the consolation of old age. I shall make no point of the fact that, after careers full of achievement and glory, many of the men who have been most honored by their contemporaries and many of the most eminent of the Romans withdrew from the conflict and hurly-burly of ambition to literary studies, as to a harbor and a delightful treat."
(John Milton in Prolusion VII: Learning Makes Men Happier Than Does Ignorance) - "It's not my habit to comment on books that don't interest me or, for various reasons, I don't like."
(Mayor Massimo Cacciari of Venice, on John Berendt's 2006 novel, The City of Falling Angels)
Pronunciation: ah-POF-ah-sis
Also Known As: paralepsis, paralipsis
