accismus

Definitions

The feigning of disinterest in something while actually desiring it.

rhetoric, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“On this account, mothers, fathers, men, and even youths, are their best companions; on the contrary, girls connected with other girls of a similar age, as in schools, provoke one another to an exchange⟳ of foibles, rather than of excellences, to a love⟳ of dress, admiration, and gossip, even to the forgetting of accismus.”

“The keen eye of the ancient comedians detected this weakness in Athenian demagogues who declined office with a view⟳ to making their election surer, and Philippides gave it the name⟳ accismus.”

CEFR level