handwave
[possibly from gestures ch aracteristic of stage magicians] To gloss over a complex point to distract a listener to support a (possibly actually valid) point with blatantly faulty logic. If someone st arts a sentence with "Cle arly..." or "Obviously..." or "It is self-evident that...", it is a good bet he is about to handwave (alternatively, use of these constructions in a s arcastic tone before a p araphrase of someone else' s argument suggests that it is a handwave). The theory behind this term is that if you wave your hands at the right moment, the listener may be sufficiently distracted to not notice that what you have said is wrong. Failing that, if a listener does object, you might try to dismiss the objection with a wave of your hand. The use of this word is often accompanied by gestures: both hands up, palms forw ard, swinging the hands in a vertical plane pivoting at the elbows and/or shoulders (depending on the magnitude of the handwave) alternatively, holding the fore arms in one position while rotating the hands at the wrist to make them flutter. In context, the gestures alone can suffice as a rem ark if a speaker makes an outrageously unsupported assumption, you might simply wave your hands in this way, as an accusation, f ar more eloquent than words could express, that his logic is faulty. [ Jargon File] In addition suitable contents: [ = ] [ ag ] [ ai ] [ al ] [ alt ] [ am ] [ an ] [ ar ] [ arc ] [ arg ] [ argument ] [ as ] [ at ] [ au ] [ av ] [ b ] [ be ] [ bj ] [ blat ] [ bo ] [ bot ] [ bv ] [ by ] [ C ] [ ca ] [ cast ] [ cc ] [ ch ] [ char ] [ character ] [ ci ] [ co ] [ com ] [ con ] [ cons ] [ context ] [ cu ] [ de ] [ ding ] [ do ] [ du ] [ ec ] [ ed ] [ eh ] [ er ] [ es ] [ et ] [ fault ] [ fi ] [ file ] [ fo ] [ for ] [ forward ] [ fr ] [ ge ] [ gh ] [ gi ] [ gl ] [ gn ] [ gu ] [ h ] [ hat ] [ hr ] [ ht ] [ id ] [ ie ] [ il ] [ in ] [ int ] [ io ] [ is ] [ it ] [ J ] [ Jargon File ] [ ke ] [ la ] [ lb ] [ ld ] [ Lex ] [ li ] [ list ] [ loss ] [ ls ] [ lt ] [ lu ] [ ly ] [ ma ] [ magic ] [ mo ] [ mod ] [ module ] [ mp ] [ ms ] [ na ] [ nc ] [ ne ] [ ng ] [ ni ] [ no ] [ ns ] [ O ] [ object ] [ om ] [ pa ] [ pe ] [ ph ] [ pl ] [ ply ] [ point ] [ port ] [ pr ] [ pt ] [ query ] [ rc ] [ re ] [ rl ] [ ro ] [ ru ] [ rw ] [ sa ] [ se ] [ sentence ] [ sh ] [ si ] [ sit ] [ sl ] [ sm ] [ so ] [ speaker ] [ st ] [ struct ] [ su ] [ sum ] [ support ] [ T ] [ tag ] [ tar ] [ text ] [ th ] [ theory ] [ to ] [ tone ] [ tr ] [ tt ] [ ua ] [ ug ] [ um ] [ up ] [ us ] [ va ] [ ve ] [ vi ] [ wav ] [ while ] [ win ] [ word ] [ ws ]
[ Go Back ]
Free On-line Dictionary of Computing Copyright © by OnlineWoerterBuecher.de - (6234 Reads) |