Apophasis

Apophasis (Greek ἀπόφασις, 'denial') is the figure in which a speaker draws attention to a subject by ostentatiously refusing to speak of it. 'I will not mention my opponent's well-known financial difficulties' is a textbook case: the sentence achieves exactly what it disclaims. The Latin equivalent, praeteritio, is often used interchangeably.

The figure is a mainstay of political and courtroom rhetoric because it lets the speaker deliver an accusation while claiming the high ground of restraint. The audience receives the charge; the speaker keeps the pose of having declined to make it. Cicero used it constantly against Verres and Catiline, and modern politicians continue the tradition every campaign season.

Apophasis works only when the audience notices the refusal is theatrical. Done clumsily, it reads as smugness or as a legal dodge. Done well, it produces a small conspiratorial pleasure: the speaker and the audience both know exactly what has just been said.

The device is close to procatalepsis (raising an objection in order to answer it) and to hypophora (asking a question in order to answer it), but distinct in intent. Apophasis is about accusation without ownership; procatalepsis is about pre-empting rebuttal; hypophora is about controlling the shape of the argument.