Apodioxis
Rejecting an opponent's argument outright as absurd or unworthy of reply.
Apodioxis is the figure of flat dismissal: the speaker refuses to engage an argument on the grounds that it is beneath engagement. 'That objection answers itself.' 'We need not waste the court's time on this.'
It is a high-risk device. Used against a genuinely weak argument in front of an audience who can see the weakness, it saves time and projects confidence. Used against a real objection, it reads as evasion and hands the point to the other side.
The classical handbooks pair it with occupatio and paromologia as ways of managing opposing material. The difference is that occupatio raises an objection to answer it and paromologia concedes it; apodioxis declines to do either.
Common mistake: using apodioxis in writing, where the audience can re-read the dismissed argument at leisure. It survives best in live speech, where dismissal moves fast enough that the audience does not stop to test it.
“The suggestion that the records were lost by accident does not deserve an answer; the timestamps supply one.”
Keep reading the glossary
Conceding a weaker point in order to strengthen the main one.
Anticipating an objection in your own argument and answering it before it can be raised.
The device of raising a subject by explicitly refusing to raise it — 'I will not mention…'
Ironically granting permission or conceding a point, so that the concession damages the opponent.