What the heck is this rhetorical device called?

[Johnny_Bravo]

It’s been bothering me all day.

If I say: “And I won’t even mention 1920s Death Rays…”

Obviously, I did bring them up, even though I said I wouldn’t. I’m almost positive I learned this Once Upon a Time.

What the heck is this thing called?

[Nametag]

http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Figures/P/paralipsis.htm]Paralipsis?

[Nametag]

http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Figures/P/paralipsis.htm

Damn it!

[NE_Texan]

I wonder why, on the page that Nametag sites, they give the english as “paralipsis”, but the greek would transliterate as “paralepsis” (an e for an i)? Is this common?

[jjimm]

An e for an i and some teeth for a tooth.

[Roches]

From the alt.usage.english FAQ:

“I won’t mention…”

Mentioning something by saying you aren’t going to mention it
(e.g., “I won’t mention his laziness”) is called “apophasis” or
“preterition”. Joseph Shipley’s Dictionary of World Literary
Terms (The Writer, 3rd ed., 1970) says: “~apophasis~ Seeming to
deny what is really affirmed. Feigning to pass by it while really
stressing it” (e.g., “not to mention his laziness”): “paralepsis.
Touching on it casually: metastasis. Pretending to shield or
conceal while really displaying (as Antony with Caesar’s will in
Shakespeare’s play): parasiopesis. […] ~autoclesis~ (P. the
self-inviter). Introduction of an idea by refusing before being
requested, intending thus to awaken (and respond to) a demand, as
Antony with the will in Julius Caesar.” “Paralepsis” is more
often spelled “paraleipsis” (which is the Greek form) or
“paralipsis”. A few sources (such as The Century Dictionary,
and the Universal English Dictionary by Henry Cecil Wyld) do not
support a distinction between apophasis and paraleipsis.

From the Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition:

[a. Gr. passing by omission, f. to leave on one side, pass by; late L. paralipsis (Aquila).]

A rhetorical figure in which the speaker emphasizes something by affecting to pass it by without notice, usually by such phrases as ‘not to mention’, ‘to say nothing of’.

1586 A. DAY Eng. Secretary II. (1625) 95 Paralepsis or Occupatio, when in seeming to ouer-passe, omit, or let-slip a thing, we then chiefly speake thereof. 1589 PUTTENHAM Eng. Poesie III. xix. (Arb.) 239 Paralepsis, or the Passager. 1657 J. SMITH Myst. Rhet. 165 Paralipsis,…Preterition. 1842 BRANDE Dict. Sci., etc., Paraleipsis, in Rhetoric, the artificially exhibited omission or slight mention of some important point, in order to impress the hearers with indignation, pity, etc.

Note that paralipsis is the preferred OED spelling; paralepsis and paraleipsis refer to it. The root words are given in Greek letters: paraleipsis is ‘passing by omission’, paraleipein is ‘to leave on one side’.