Definition:
Intentionally obscure speech or writing, designed to confuse an audience rather than clarify an issue.
Etymology:
From the Greek, "darken" (coined by Richard Lanham in A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms)Examples and Observations:
- "There is a mode of style for which I know not that the masters of oratory have yet found a name; a style by which the most evident truths are so obscured that they can no longer be perceived, and the most familiar propositions so disguised that they cannot be known. Every other kind of eloquence is the dress of sense, but this is the mask, by which a true master of his art will so effectually conceal it, that a man will as easily mistake his own positions if he meets them thus transformed, as he may pass in a masquerade his nearest acquaintance. This style may be called the "terrifick," for its chief intention is to terrify and amaze; it may be termed the "repulsive," for its natural effect is to drive away the reader or it may be distinguished, in plain English, by he denomination of the "bugbear style," for it has more terror than danger, and will appear less formidable, as it is more nearly approached."
(Samuel Johnson, Idler, No. 36) - "I would say the biggest thing in baseball at the present time now, and with the money that is coming in, and so forth, and with the annuity fund for the players, you can't allow the commissioner to just take everything sitting there, and take everything insofar as money is concerned, but I think he should have full jurisdiction over the player and player's habits, and the way the umpires and ball clubs should conduct their business in the daytime and right on up tight up here."
(Casey Stengel, testimony on July 8, 1958 at the Senate Anti-Trust and Monopoly Subcommittee Hearing)
Pronunciation: SKO-ti-son
