weasel word en · NOUN
Etymology
Initially a reference to weasels' practice of making small holes in eggs and then eating the contents, leaving the shell; later sometimes taken as a reference to the weasel's "wriggling, evasive character".
Meanings
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(dated, derogatory) A word that negates or removes the meaning of the word it qualifies.
1900. Century Magazine, quoted in Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson (New York: Facts on File Publications, 1987)). Weasel words are words that suck all of the life out of the words next to them just as a weasel sucks an egg and leaves the shell.
Now, you can have universal training or you can have voluntary training, but when you use the word 'voluntary' to qualify the word 'universal', you are using a weasel word; it has sucked all the meaning out of 'universal'. The two words flatly contradict one another.
1916 May 31, Theodore Roosevelt, speech delivered in St. Louis, MO
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(derogatory) A word used to hedge a statement, for example to make it vague, equivocal, or misleading.
In scrapping HS2's eastern leg and descoping Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR), Prime Minister Boris Johnson's frequent and unambiguous promises to build both have been exposed for the weasel words they were.
2021 December 1, Nigel Harris, “IRP snuffs out 'levelling up'”, in RAIL, number 945, page 3:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| weasel words | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Hypernyms
Synonyms
Translations (5)
cmn 狡辯之辭 /狡辩之辞 (word used to qualify or hedge a statement) · nl wezelwoord (word used to qualify or hedge a statement) · nl vaagtaal (word used to qualify or hedge a statement) · de schwammiger Begriff (word used to qualify or hedge a statement) · tr mana bozucu kelime (word used to qualify or hedge a statement)