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George Orwell, in his novel 1984, used the terms doublethink (the act of simultaneously accepting two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct) and Newspeak (a controlled language of restricted grammar and limited vocabulary, meant to limit the freedom of thought). These two have been combined to form the term doublespeak (frequently incorrectly attributed ...
29
How about:
obfuscate
VERB [WITH OBJECT]
1 Make obscure, unclear, or
unintelligible.
‘the spelling changes will deform some familiar words and obfuscate
their etymological origins’
1.1 Bewilder (someone) ‘the new rule is more likely to obfuscate people than enlighten them’
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/obfuscate
"The ...
19
When a writer or speaker prevaricates, he chooses misleading words.
Part of the M-W usage notes:
Prevaricate and its synonyms "lie" and "equivocate" all refer to playing fast and loose with the truth. "Lie" is the bluntest of the three. When you accuse someone of lying, you are saying he or she was intentionally dishonest, no bones about it. "...
16
Another choice might be weasel words
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/weasel%20word
: a word used in order to evade or retreat from a direct or forthright statement or position
16
Allusion, may be the term you are looking for.
Allusion is a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing
or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance.
It does not describe in detail the person or thing to which it refers.
It is just a passing comment and the writer expects the reader to
possess enough knowledge ...
7
I think Allusion is the best term for this scenario, but there can be other world-breaking type of scenarios. I adore MetaFiction, so the link to Intertextuality is a good starting place, and if you have time, yes, TV Tropes can show you a zillion parallels.
Some more things to explore:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
6
This is an interesting example, because Stallman is talking tendentious nonsense. There are many cases in this world where language is misused with intent to deceive, but none of the examples he gives are anything of the kind.
In modern North American English, when we call a creative person a "creator", we all agree that we mean they create something, ...
6
The is the recipe's yield. Here is a reference in a culinary textbook, Basic Kitchen and Food Service Management:
Yield in culinary terms refers to how much you will have of a finished or processed product. Professional recipes should always state a yield; for example, a tomato soup recipe may yield 15 L, and a muffin recipe may yield 24 muffins. Yield ...
5
There's always that gem from Churchill;
"terminological inexactitude."
This is often used to say someone is lying, but also means exactly what it says; being inexact in one's terminology, or using misleading words, or words intended to mislead.
4
Paleo
From Greek πάλαι (pálai, “long ago”)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic#Etymology_of_paleolithic
3
Hubris
From Merriam-Webster:
exaggerated pride or self-confidence
Hubris pretty much always has a negative connotation, unlike ego, which may be neutral, from its origins in ancient Greek.
2
The word I see used most often is "freemium".
Investopedia says:
Freemium is a combination of the words "free" and "premium" used to describe a business model that offers both free and premium services. The freemium business model works by offering simple and basic services for free for the user to try and more advanced or additional features at a ...
2
There is a very well known idiom to the effect of one bad apple spoils the whole bunch, which is also referenced in Cartoon-Illustrated Metaphors: Idioms, Proverbs, Cliches and Slang by Kaimen Lee Ph.D. as One Rotten Apple Spoils the Barrel. The Random House Dictionary of America's Popular Proverbs and Sayings lists it under The Rotten Apple Spoils the ...
2
The generalized "town [description]" effectively means "the person who is the biggest/best [description] in their/my town". Examples:
Town drunk, i.e. the person in a town who is known to be a drunkard.
Village idiot, i.e. the biggest (well-known) idiot in the village.
Hottie simply means "an attractive person" (most commonly a woman, but not exclusively ...
2
I'm a fan of bamboozle:
to conceal one's true motives from, especially by elaborately feigning good intentions so as to gain an end
2
Here is the main discussion of "words used as words" in The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition (2010):
7.58 Words and phrases used as words. When a word or term is not used functionally but is referred to as the word or term itself, it is either italicized or enclosed in quotation marks. ...
[Example:] The term critical mass is more often ...
2
Why not euphemism?
From Greek euphemismos "use of a favorable word in place of an inauspicious one.”
2
objective ODO
1 (of a person or their judgement) not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts.
1.1 Not dependent on the mind for existence; actual.
The opposite is subjective, where the person offers their opinions or conclusions.
2
Such a person can be called a
Columbo
This comes from a US television program where the detective, Columbo, pretended to be well meaning but bumbling. Here's how you use it:
A helpful advocacy technique in special education meetings is to play Columbo and ask questions as though you didn't know the answer, for example, "Does IDEA allow the district to ...
1
I would argue that bending does not necessitate there being only a single bend. Whether there is one bend or many, bending still applies. If you twist and bend something, it's not normally thought of as meaning just a single iteration of the action. If you bend something once, there's not to prevent you from bending it again—and in a different place.
...
1
From comments by Tuffy (1,2):
The Greek word word for Earth is ‘gē’ (Γη)! So etymologically, a ‘geologist’ studies the (physical) Earth. ‘Xeno’ is from the Greek word ‘xenos’ (ξένος), meaning a stranger or foreigner. So a xenogeologist is a geologist of ‘foreign’ planets and other bodies. So if you wanted to have a special word for geologists of Earth, it ...
1
"Archaeo" also is used. It's used in my branch of science as a prefix meaning "ancient, olden, primitive, primeval, from the beginning." The root is a Latinized form of the Greek arkhaios: "ancient, primeval." It's also the root of the English word "archaic."
1
This is usually referred to simply as the tail
From Wikipedia (but acknowledging that the article would benefit from better citations):
The most common is the speech bubble. It comes in two forms for two circumstances: an in-panel character and an off-panel character. An in-panel character (one who is fully or mostly visible ...
1
Factual.
restricted to or based on fact
Facts are unembellished, stubborn things that aren't always convenient, but are incredibly persistent. A factual account doesn't lend itself to any bias or agenda.
1
Try descriptive. Oxford Dictionaries:
Describing or classifying in an objective and non-judgemental way.
Especially when describing research or study, descriptive denotes that one is focusing on observations rather than making conjectures or conclusions on the basis of those observations. In this way, one can refer to "descriptive research" (a set ...
1
In addition to George Orwell, I would like to mention political consultant Frank Luntz. During the last two decades he has become the poster boy for the strategy of methodically crafting vocabularies to frame the political discourse to the benefit of your side. Here are some examples of political neologisms attributed to him:
Death tax (instead of estate ...
1
P compares less than zero means: evaluating the statement "P < 0" returns "true". It could be that the "object" P is a number which is less than zero, or it could be that it is not a number at all but some other type of object which (by convention) has this property.
1
I'm fine about being wrong but will add I was referring to an opening in the door which Gran called a Vassi. It was a small window that could be opened from the inside to allow delivery of small packages. I think I may have misunderstood the original question.
1
How about...
Dynamic
(of a person) positive in attitude and full of energy and new ideas.
a dynamic young advertising executive
This can be said of someone who has the energy to carry on their work as if it is a fun thing to do, while very dedicated and tuned in.
Maybe also...
Lighthearted yet dedicated
Lighthearted
(1.1) (...
1
A clever way to approach this:
Part 1: Title of respect
Admiral:the commander in chief of a navy; a commissioned officer in the navy or coast guard who ranks above a vice admiral and whose insignia is four stars
Captain: a military leader : the commander of a unit or a body of troops
Chief: accorded highest rank or office
Above definitions Merriam ...
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