amphibology
English edit
Alternative forms edit
- amphibologie (obsolete)
Etymology edit
From French amphibologie, from late Latin amphibologia, earlier amphibolia, from Ancient Greek ἀμφιβολία (amphibolía, “ambiguity”).
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
amphibology (countable and uncountable, plural amphibologies)
- (archaic) Amphiboly.
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes […], London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:, Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.133:
- In Athens men learn'd […] to resolve a sophisticall argument, and to confound the imposture and amphibologie of words, captiously enterlaced together […].
- 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica[1], London: Edw. Dod & Nath. Ekins, published 1650, Book I, Chapter 4, p. 10:
- […] there are but two [fallacies] worthy our notation; and unto which the rest may be referred: that is the fallacie of Æquivocation and Amphibologie; which conclude from the ambiguity of some one word, or the ambiguous syntaxis of many put together.