 A
long time ago, someone told me that "pretermission" means the practice
of saying things like, "I don't mean to criticize, but..." -- most often
as a feigned disavowal. The dictionaries I own do not seem to support that
definition.
"Don't take this personally, but..." facilitates something like "...your feet stink." Whatever follows the comma-but is made curiously more annoying by the gratuitous disclaimer -- whatever its proper name. It almost does not matter what follows a spouse's, "If you really loved me,..." The marriage is deeply distressed if not doomed. A label like pretermission could serve as a counselling instrument for sensitizing partners to manipulative behaviors. Before applying the term, you will want to check other references. Good luck. I have not succeeded in authenticating the connotation, so I decided to forego its use, however handy. The closest term may be "praeteritio," which for sure I don't use. It applies to benign expressions such as, "not to mention" or "to say nothing of." What I have in mind is stronger. "Spare me the pretermission," I would like to say, interrupting the next person who starts out with: "To make a long story short,..." Pity to pretermit so powerful a put-down. |