Нақты мағынасы жоқ сөздер мен тіркестер

Words or phrases using vague claims to appear meaningful
the specific meaning in Wikipedia

In rhetoric, a weasel word, or anonymous authority, is a word and/or phrase aimed at creating an impression that something specific and meaningful has been said, when in fact only a vague, ambiguous, or irrelevant claim has been communicated. The terms may be considered informal. Examples include the phrases "some people say", "it is thought", and "researchers believe". Using weasel words may allow one to later deny any specific meaning if the statement is challenged, because the statement was never specific in the first place. Weasel words can be a form of tergiversation and may be used in advertising, popular science, opinion pieces and political statements to mislead or disguise a biased view or unsubstantiated claim. Weasel words can harshen or over state a controversial statement. An example of this is using terms like "somewhat" or "in most respects," which make a sentence more ambiguous than it would be without them.

The expression weasel word may have derived from the egg eating habits of weasels. An article published by the Buffalo News attributes the origin of the term to William Shakespeare's plays Henry V and As You Like It, in which the author includes similes of weasels sucking eggs. The article said that this simile was flawed because weasels do not have the jaw musculature suitable for sucking eggs. Ovid's Metamorphoses provides an earlier source for the same etymology. Ovid describes how Juno orders the goddess of childbirth, Lucina, to prevent Alcmene from giving birth to Hercules. Alcmene's servant Galanthis, realizing that Lucina is outside the room using magic to prevent the birth, emerges to announce that the birth has been a success. Lucina, in her amazement, drops the spells of binding and Hercules is born. Galanthis then mocks Lucina, who responds by transforming her into a weasel. Ovid writes (in A. S. Kline's translation) "And because her lying mouth helped in childbirth, she [as a weasel] gives birth through her mouth." Ancient Greeks believed that weasels conceived through their ears and gave birth through their mouths. Definitions of the word 'weasel' that imply deception and irresponsibility include: the noun form, referring to a sneaky, untrustworthy, or insincere person; the verb form, meaning to manipulate shiftily; and the phrase "to weasel out," meaning "to squeeze one's way out of something" or "to evade responsibility." Theodore Roosevelt attributed the term to his friend William Sewall's older brother, Dave, claiming that he had used the term in a private conversation in 1879. The expression first appeared in print in Stewart Chaplin's short story "Stained Glass Political Platform" (published in 1900 in The Century Magazine), in which weasel words were described as "words that suck the life out of the words next to them, just as a weasel sucks the egg and leaves the shell." Roosevelt apparently later put the term into public use after using it in a speech in St. Louis May 31, 1916. According to Mario Pei, Roosevelt said, "When a weasel sucks an egg, the meat is sucked out of the egg; and if you use a weasel word after another, there is nothing left of the other."