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Dec 10, 2010
This week's themeWhat to avoid when using words This week's words pleonasm apophasis sesquipedality periphrasis paralipsis This week's comments AWADmail 441 Next week's theme Words made with combining forms the book 
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Gargparalipsis
PRONUNCIATION:
(par-uh-LIP-sis)
MEANING:
noun: Drawing attention to something while claiming to be passing over it.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin paralipsis, from Greek paraleipsis (an omission), from
paraleipein (to leave on one side), from para- (side) + leipein
(to leave). First recorded use: 1550.
NOTES:
Paralipsis is especially handy in politics to point out an opponent's
faults. It typically involves these phrases:"not to mention" "to say nothing of" "I won't speak of" "leaving aside" USAGE:
"Political correctness has breathed new life into the paralepsis, the
rhetorical device whereby we make a statement by first announcing that
we are not going to make it. When pundits write 'No one is suggesting...'
the American eye reads 'I'm suggesting.'"Florence King; If 'Words Mean Things', Then All is Lost; Times-Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia); Feb 19, 1995. See more usage examples of paralipsis in Vocabulary.com's dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
When one has been threatened with a great injustice, one accepts a smaller as a favour. -Jane Welsh Carlyle, letter writer (1801-1866)
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