Line #7 Main/WeaselWords


1	[[quoteright:275:[[Website/{{Wikipedia}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/weasel_words.png]]]]
2	[[caption-width-right:275:A ''not'' so necessary weasel!]]
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4	->''"And you really believe all that? I can't tell when you decorate your sentences with all those hedges."''
5	-->-- '''Siobhan''', ''Fanfic/{{Luminosity}}''
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7	Weasel Words are about words or phrases that imply more than they actually mean. Taken at face value, they don't say much at all, or are just not impressive. However, the way they're used imply there's substance to them, that they mean something.
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9	This is one reason they're a common feature of advertising, both on television and elsewhere: companies can imply that products or offers are better than they actually are without getting into legal trouble for lying about it. For instance, "[[AdjacentToThisCompleteBreakfast part of this complete breakfast]]" doesn't mean the product itself completes the breakfast, but the implication is that it does.
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11	For an extensive and detailed examination of Weasel Words, see [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weasel_word this entry at Wikipedia.]] Or, better yet, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Avoid_weasel_words see this entry!]] Some people say that weasel words are a necessary generalisation. Website/TVTropes editor {{Tropers/Sockatume}} believes that if you know who's saying something, you should mention it.
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13	Do you see what we did there?
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15	The passive voice is often used as weasel wording. The passive voice is often used in journalism when something is stated to be done but it is not desired that the question "By whom was it done?" should be answered.
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17	For one form of weasel words we don't want around here, see Administrivia/ExamplesAreNotArguable. As an interesting note the term is called that [[GoodAnimalsEvilAnimals not to imply weasels are inherently evil somehow]], but rather in reference to how they eat eggs by sucking the insides out and only make a small hole, meaning an egg they have sucked may appear to be intact until someone looks at it more closely, in the same way weasel words suck the meaning out of a statement without being immediately obvious.
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19	Compare TropesHiddenFromAudience, many of which these tropes are. Sometimes used by someone proposing TheComplianceGame.
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21	[[index]]
22	* AdjacentToThisCompleteBreakfast: Like the description says, this is trying to imply that the product is what completes the breakfast, but in actuality, it's only adjacent to it.
23	* AllNaturalSnakeOil: Using the word 'natural' or similar to describe a product in advertising. This is weasel wording because sometimes NatureIsNotNice, and sometimes only part of the product is natural.
24	* AsbestosFreeCereal: Implying that a food product is good for you because it lacks something that's obviously bad, while saying nothing about what it ''does'' contain, which may be more important information.
25	* AbsoluteComparative: Advertising a product by using a comparison that sounds positive but doesn't really mean anything (for example, a pillow being described as "30% softer" than most pillows is an example of this because softness isn't really something you can measure).
26	* {{Crunchtastic}}: Describing a product with made-up words that sound positive because they end in the endings of positive words, such as "(l)icious", "(r)ific", or "tastic", but because these words are made-up, they don't mean anything.
27	* DamnedByFaintPraise: Praising something you don't actually like by pointing out something that may be true but is so mundane/weak/beside the point that pointing it out isn't really a compliment.
28	* LiteCreme: Misspelling a word when the ingredient it suggests isn't there or is hardly there. It's weasel wording because, for example, "creme" implies there is cream, when there actually isn't.
29	* NeverNeedsSharpening: Making the product seem positive by saying that it "doesn't need X", when in reality, it breaks when you do X with it.
30	* NewAndImproved: A product is changed slightly and so advertisers hype up the fact that it's "new". The implication is that new = good, but it's not necessarily the case.
31	* ParityProductParadox: Everyone's claiming their product is "the best", but that means that "best" is now "normal", so they need permission to claim it's better.
32	* PaymentPlanPitch: Making something expensive seem cheap by splitting the full price into "X dollars/pounds/whatever per [relatively short period of time]".
33	* PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny: Naming an oppressive republic something that points out the fact that it's democratic to try and make it sound not-oppressive.
34	* QuoteMine: Taking a quote from something to prove a point, but the context gives the quote a different meaning.
35	* UpToOrMore: Using the phrase "up to X or more" to advertise something, which is meaningless because "up to X or more" could be anything.
36	[[/index]]
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Context Main / WeaselWords