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Glossary Of Logic And Reasoning Terms, Weasel Word
Weasel word
Quote:
A weasel word is a word that
is intended to, or has the effect of, softening the force of a potentially
loaded or otherwise controversial statement. This phrase appears in Stewart
Chaplin's short story Stained Glass Political Platform published in 1900 in The
Century Magazine according to The Macmillan Dictionary of Contemporary Phrase
and Fable : "Why, weasel words are words that suck the life out of the words
next to them, just as a weasel sucks the egg and leaves the shell." Thus, weasel
words suck the meaning out of a statement while seeming to keep the idea intact,
and are particularly associated with political pronouncements. Weasel words are
used euphemistically. The term invokes the image of a weasel being sneaky and
well able to wiggle out of a tight spot. Weasel words work, ad nauseum, as in
commercial lingo to glide over an uncomfortable fact (therefore "headcount
reduction"" replaces "firing staff")[1]], or to create a sense of grandeur and
inflated importance (and so "transitory staffing solution provider" substitutes
for "temp agency"). Too many more examples of the widespread and indiscriminate
usages of corporate jargon, inflicted scatter-shot on the unwary consumer, could
be easily provided. Generally, weasel terms are statements that are misleading
because they lack the normal substantiations of their truthfulness, as well as
the background information against which these statements are made. Weasel terms
are the equivalent of spin in the political sphere in British English.
Carl Wrighter identified weasel words in his book I Can Sell You Anything
(1972). Earlier in his Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (1956), U.S. Air
Force Captain Edward J. Ruppelt described astronomer Dr. J. Allen Hynek's report
on the death of Air Force Pilot Thomas Mantell in pursuit of a UFO as "a
masterpiece in the art of 'weasel wording'."[2]
Weasel words are almost always intended to deceive or draw attention from
something the speaker doesn't want emphasized, rather than being the inadvertent
result of the speaker's or writer's poor but honest attempt at
description.
Australian author Don Watson has collected two volumes (Death Sentence and
Watson's Dictionary of Weasel Words) documenting the increasing use of weasel
words in government and corporate language. He maintains a website [3]
encouraging people to identify and nominate examples of weasely language, which
gives many examples of dissimulation through excessive verbosity. Watson was
previously a speech writer for Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating.
"I realized that the purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure
poor reasoning, and inhibit clarity." Bill Watterson, Homicidal Psycho Jungle
Cat page 62
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Weasel word
Glossary Of Logic And Reasoning Terms, Weasel Word