Words & WritingGreek → English
Apophasis
/əˈpɒfəsɪs/noun
Raising a subject by declaring that one will not mention it, as in "I won't dwell on his convictions".
The Greek roots
ἀπό
apó
away, off
φημί
phēmí
to say, speak
Literally: “a speaking away, denial”
The story of the word
Politicians live on this figure, which is why it also travels under the Latin name praeteritio. Theology took the same word in a wholly different direction: apophatic theology describes God only by what God is not, on the ground that no positive term can hold. One word, two disciplines, both built on the useful power of a denial.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
Same family
apophaticprophetblasphemyeuphemism
In a sentence
"Not to mention the missing receipts" is apophasis doing real damage.
Byzantine mystics preferred the apophatic route to any list of divine attributes.