Word that describes the practice of "expressing a feeling/assessment by first denying that feeling/assessment"

Question

I'm looking for a single word that describes the practice of "expressing a feeling/assessment by first denying that feeling/assessment". Here is an example of that practice: "I'm not saying you're wrong but there is no evidence to support your assertion". Or: "I'm not saying you're overweight but you could stand to lose a few pounds". Or, "I don't think I'm perfect but I rarely make mistakes". I've checked the thesaurus: "irony" is the closest fit, but isn't quite right.

As in..

I don't know what my wife truly meant when she uttered the _________: "I'm not saying I don't love you anymore, but I just feel that we need a trial separation ".

Welcome to EL&U. Your question will get closed for not providing a sample sentence to indicate the target language usage. Please hover your cursor over the SWR tag. — Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_, Jun 23 '19 at 20:40
Sorry - I thought I did provide some sample sentences, e.g. "I'm not saying you're wrong but there is no evidence to support your assertion" — user136484, Jun 23 '19 at 21:15
No, what I meant is that we need some kind of description of the usage of the target language in a cloze sentence..i.e. one with a blank in it. Are you looking for a noun, verb, adjective? You can see our difficulty here. — Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_, Jun 23 '19 at 21:18
I see. How about: I don't know what my wife truly meant when my she uttered the _________: "I'm not saying I don't love you anymore, but I just feel that we need a trial separation ". — user136484, Jun 23 '19 at 21:49
Please do not leave your proposed edit in comment: edit the post. — Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_, Jun 23 '19 at 22:03
This sounds like a variety of apophasis which is related to irony and contradiction. And though it may well be logically correct for your specifications, it sounds a little strange in all your examples. — Mitch, Jun 24 '19 at 00:25
@Cascabel - New users often don't know how. Thanks for making the edit for them. — aparente001, Jun 24 '19 at 03:06
I don't know what my wife meant when she contradicted herself. — aparente001, Jun 24 '19 at 11:03
@Mitch I agree that apophasis is close, as is paralipsis (some websites say those terms are synonymous while others claim that there is a subtle difference in their meanings). — user136484, Jun 24 '19 at 12:22
See also Is there a term for making a statement while denying you're making said statement?, where @rhetorician offers: 'Sounds like apophasis to me, also known as praeteritio or occupatio. It's a figure of speech which "asserts or emphasizes something by pointedly seeming to pass over, ignore, or deny it" (Robert A. Harris, "A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices").' Included is "I'm not saying she's a crook, [but] ...". — Edwin Ashworth, Jun 24 '19 at 13:18

score -1 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

Such a statement makes a case for a paradox.

I don't know what my wife truly meant when she uttered the paradox: "I'm not saying I don't love you anymore, but I just feel that we need a trial separation ".

Collins:

paradox
2. variable noun
A paradox is a statement in which it seems that if one part of it is true, the other part of it cannot be true.

Although I'm so successful I'm really rather a failure. That's a paradox, isn't it?

COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary.
Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers

Word that describes the practice of "expressing a feeling/assessment by first denying that feeling/assessment"

1 Answers1