apophasis

Via Late Latin apophasis from Ancient Greek ἀπόφασις (apóphasis, “denial, negation”) from ἀπο- (apo-, “away, from, off”) +‎ φάσις (phásis, “statement, proposition”) from φημί (phēmí, “to speak”) from Proto-Hellenic *pʰā́mā from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂; whence Latin fārī, cognate to fame, fable.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əˈpɒf.ə.sɪs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /əˈpɑf.ə.sɪs/

apophasis (countable and uncountable, plural apophases)

1. (rhetoric) An allusion to something by denying that it will be mentioned.

   Synonyms: paralipsis, parasiopesis, praeteritio, preterition

   Hypernym: irony

   Hyponyms: proslepsis, assumptio

   Coordinate terms: antiphrasis, concessio, epitrope, mycterism, sarcasm

   • 1835, L[arret] Langley, A Manual of the Figures of Rhetoric, […], Doncaster: Printed by C. White, Baxter-Gate, →OCLC, page 63:

     Apophasis, affecting to conceal;
     What it would seem to hide, will yet reveal.

2. (Christianity, philosophy, theology) A process of arriving at knowledge by statements of denial; particularly, developing a concept of God through negative assertions about his nature.

   Synonyms: apophatic theology, via negativa

   Antonyms: cataphasis, via affirmativa

• apo-
• -phasis
• apophatic
• apophatically

• not to mention
• to say nothing of

From Ancient Greek ἀπόφασις (apóphasis, “denial, negation”), ἀπο- (apo-, “away, from, off”) +‎ φάσις (phásis, “statement, proposition”) from ἀπόφημι (apóphēmi, “speak out; say no, refuse, deny”) from Attic Greek φημί (phēmí), Doric Greek φᾱμί (phāmí) from Proto-Hellenic *pʰā́mā from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂; whence via Proto-Italic *fāōr, *fāmā compare fārī, fābula, fāma, hence English fable, fame.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /aˈpo.pʰa.sis/, [äˈpɔpʰäs̠ɪs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /aˈpo.fa.sis/, [äˈpɔːfäs̬is]

apophasis f (genitive apophasis); third declension

1. denial, negation, repudiation
2. (Late Latin, logic, rhetoric) apophasis; ironically alluding to a subject matter by denying that the subject will be mentioned, embedded within a statement or rhetorical question whereby one, as it were, answers himself
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin, Christianity, philosophy, theology) apprehending knowledge of what is true about an unknowable, such as the essence of a divine being like God, by a negative process of denying propositions that are knowably untrue

   Synonyms: abnuentia, negatio, (New Latin) via negativa

   Antonyms: affirmatio, aientia, cataphasis, (New Latin) via affirmativa

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

apophasīs f

1. accusative plural of apophasis

• “apophasis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “apophasis”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• apophasis in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 142.
• apophasis in Georges, Karl Ernst, Georges, Heinrich (1913–1918) Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th edition, volume 1, Hahnsche Buchhandlung, column 499