Aphorismus

Aphorismus (from the Greek: ἀφορισμός, aphorismós, "a marking off", also "rejection, banishment") is a figure of speech that calls into question if a word is properly used ("How can you call yourself a man?").^[1] It often appears in the form of a rhetorical question which is meant to imply a difference between the present thing being discussed and the general notion of the subject.

Examples

• "For you have but mistook me all this while. / I live with bread like you, feel want, / Taste grief, need friends: subjected thus, / How can you say to me I am a king?" William Shakespeare, Richard II Act 3, scene 2, 174-177
• "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is." Bill Clinton, August 17, 1998
• "You eat meat. And you call yourself an animal lover?"

References

1. Myers, Wukasch (2003). The Dictionary of Poetic Terms. University of NORTH TEXAS Press. p. 22. ISBN 1574411667.

See also

• Figure of speech
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