Terminological inexactitude
Terminological inexactitude ( German terminological inexactitude ) is a formulation that was coined in 1906 by the British politician and later Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill . Nowadays, the phrase is used in the English-speaking world as a euphemistic description for a lie or a falsehood , especially in political discourse. Churchill first used the phrase during the election campaign for the British general election in 1906 . In a speech in the House of Commons on February 22, 1906, immediately after his election as Undersecretary of State for the Colonial Office, he repeated the formulation in response to a question whether the government approved the enslavement of Chinese workers in the British colony of the Transvaal in South Africa. Churchill replied:
"The conditions of the Transvaal ordinance [...] cannot in the opinion of His Majesty's Government be classified as slavery; at least, that word in its full sense could not be applied without a risk of terminological inexactitude. "
“The terms of the Transvaal Ordinance […] cannot, in the opinion of His Majesty's Government, be classified as slavery; at least this word could not be used in its full meaning without the risk of terminological inaccuracy. "
While the first use of the term was meant in the literal sense as a cumbersome description for an imprecise or incorrect choice of words, the meaning soon changed to a euphemism for a deliberately spread untruth, i.e. a lie. Accordingly, the use of the term in the parliamentary debate, for example in the House of Commons, is viewed as unparliamentary, as members of the British House of Commons are traditionally not supposed to accuse one another of lying.
Similar conventions apply, for example, also in the Austrian Parliament and the German Bundestag, where there is a call to order can pull for a member to when / her another member of lying is accused of him.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Safire, William : Safire's Political Dictionary , 5th Edition, Oxford University Press , Oxford 2008, ISBN 9780195340617 , p. 474. in English
- ↑ The Outlook , Volume 17 , in English, as of January 28, 2012
- ↑ Stenographic minutes of the National Council debate of July 6, 2016. , p. 83 (85)
- ^ Stenographic report of the Bundestag debate on October 17, 2012 , pp. 54, 55