Is there a word for this (in any language?)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’m looking for a word to describe this: when you make an offer, knowing the offered person will not accept, just so you can say you offered. For instance, inviting someone you don’t like to a party because social niceties dictate it, knowing that person wouldn’t be caught dead at your party. By offering, at least you can say you invited her, which SEEMS as if it makes you look like the bigger person, when really you were playing the odds that your offer would not be accepted. It’s a CYA type thing. Or, if you call someone’s bluff, knowing that they will fold, knowing full well that you won’t have to follow through on your proposition, but busting that person’s bluff nonetheless, at very little risk to self.

Wow, those were convoluted explanations. I hope they were clear enough. I figure if there isn’t a word for this in English, probably there’s one in Yiddish or German. Help me out here? Thanks!

2

Perhaps a “gesture”?

  • something said or done by way of formality or courtesy, as a symbol or token, or for its effect on the attitudes of others
3

Or … sometimes I have heard this called a “token gesture”.

4

“Token gesture” is about right.

In this context, token means:

a. Perfunctory; minimal: “a token gesture of reconciliation”.
b. Merely symbolic: refused to be the token minority on the committee.

Sniffs_Markers used an Aussie expression “clayton.” She said it came from the name of a non-alcoholic whiskey that had the slogan “It’s the drink you have when you can’t have a drink.” (She has no idea if the hoochless whiskey still exists.)

Makers used it in the context of a “clayton relationship” referring to a “token girlfriend.”