"scare quote" meaning in English

See scare quote in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: en-au-scare quote.ogg Forms: scare quotes [plural]
Etymology: Coined by British analytic philosopher G. E. M. Anscombe in 1956 in her essay “Aristotle and the Sea Battle”. Originally spelt with a hyphen as scare-quotes. Etymology templates: {{coinage|en|Q229646|in=1956}} Coined by British analytic philosopher G. E. M. Anscombe in 1956 Head templates: {{en-noun}} scare quote (plural scare quotes)
  1. (chiefly in the plural) A quotation mark deliberately used to provoke a reaction or to indicate that the author does not approve of a term or clause, rather than to identify a direct quotation. Tags: in-plural Categories (topical): Punctuation marks Synonyms: shudder quote, sneer quote, scare-quote Related terms: air quote, quote unquote Translations (quotation mark used to provoke reaction): 引号 (yǐnhào) (Chinese Mandarin), ironinen lainausmerkki (Finnish), guillemet ironique [masculine] (French), ironisches Anführungszeichen [neuter] (German), virgolette ironiche [feminine, plural] (Italian), aspas irónicas [Portugal, feminine, plural] (Portuguese), aspas irônicas [Brazil, feminine, plural] (Portuguese), cita de miedo [feminine] (Spanish)

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "Q229646",
        "in": "1956"
      },
      "expansion": "Coined by British analytic philosopher G. E. M. Anscombe in 1956",
      "name": "coinage"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Coined by British analytic philosopher G. E. M. Anscombe in 1956 in her essay “Aristotle and the Sea Battle”. Originally spelt with a hyphen as scare-quotes.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "scare quotes",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "scare quote (plural scare quotes)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Mandarin terms with redundant transliterations",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with redundant transliterations",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with French translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with German translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Italian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Mandarin translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Portuguese translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Spanish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Punctuation marks",
          "orig": "en:Punctuation marks",
          "parents": [
            "Letters, symbols, and punctuation",
            "Symbols",
            "Orthography",
            "Writing",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Language",
            "Human",
            "Communication",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2001 January 1, “The Retreat From Inquiry and Knowledge in Special Education.”, in Journal of Special Education:",
          "text": "One other important figure in postmodern thought is Richard Rorty, who might be characterized as master of the scare quote",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004, P Timms, What's Wrong with Contemporary Art?:",
          "text": "He is inordinately fond of the scare quote, a sign that he is not really sure of what he's talking about.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006 September 6, “Where Hairsplitting Can Become High Drama”, in New York Sun:",
          "text": "An incidental pleasure is his witty mastery of the scare quote and the square bracket.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, D Jeske, “Friendship and the grounds of reasons”, in papyrus.bib.umontreal.ca:",
          "text": "I put the relevant pronouns in scare quote because Bundy’s interviewers succeeded in getting Bundy to talk about his crimes only by allowing him to describe them in the third person",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A quotation mark deliberately used to provoke a reaction or to indicate that the author does not approve of a term or clause, rather than to identify a direct quotation."
      ],
      "id": "en-scare_quote-en-noun-Fdn0zHoW",
      "links": [
        [
          "quotation mark",
          "quotation mark"
        ],
        [
          "provoke",
          "provoke"
        ],
        [
          "reaction",
          "reaction"
        ],
        [
          "approve",
          "approve"
        ],
        [
          "quotation",
          "quotation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly in the plural) A quotation mark deliberately used to provoke a reaction or to indicate that the author does not approve of a term or clause, rather than to identify a direct quotation."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "air quote"
        },
        {
          "word": "quote unquote"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "shudder quote"
        },
        {
          "word": "sneer quote"
        },
        {
          "word": "scare-quote"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "in-plural"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "note": "(no equivalent exists; translation given for \"quotation marks\") 引號",
          "sense": "quotation mark used to provoke reaction"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "yǐnhào",
          "sense": "quotation mark used to provoke reaction",
          "word": "引号"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "quotation mark used to provoke reaction",
          "word": "ironinen lainausmerkki"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "quotation mark used to provoke reaction",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "guillemet ironique"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "quotation mark used to provoke reaction",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "ironisches Anführungszeichen"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "quotation mark used to provoke reaction",
          "tags": [
            "feminine",
            "plural"
          ],
          "word": "virgolette ironiche"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "quotation mark used to provoke reaction",
          "tags": [
            "Portugal",
            "feminine",
            "plural"
          ],
          "word": "aspas irónicas"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "quotation mark used to provoke reaction",
          "tags": [
            "Brazil",
            "feminine",
            "plural"
          ],
          "word": "aspas irônicas"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "quotation mark used to provoke reaction",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "cita de miedo"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-scare quote.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b2/En-au-scare_quote.ogg/En-au-scare_quote.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/En-au-scare_quote.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "scare quote"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "Q229646",
        "in": "1956"
      },
      "expansion": "Coined by British analytic philosopher G. E. M. Anscombe in 1956",
      "name": "coinage"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Coined by British analytic philosopher G. E. M. Anscombe in 1956 in her essay “Aristotle and the Sea Battle”. Originally spelt with a hyphen as scare-quotes.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "scare quotes",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "scare quote (plural scare quotes)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "air quote"
    },
    {
      "word": "quote unquote"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English coinages",
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms coined by G. E. M. Anscombe",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Mandarin terms with redundant transliterations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Finnish translations",
        "Terms with French translations",
        "Terms with German translations",
        "Terms with Italian translations",
        "Terms with Mandarin translations",
        "Terms with Portuguese translations",
        "Terms with Spanish translations",
        "en:Body language",
        "en:Punctuation marks"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2001 January 1, “The Retreat From Inquiry and Knowledge in Special Education.”, in Journal of Special Education:",
          "text": "One other important figure in postmodern thought is Richard Rorty, who might be characterized as master of the scare quote",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004, P Timms, What's Wrong with Contemporary Art?:",
          "text": "He is inordinately fond of the scare quote, a sign that he is not really sure of what he's talking about.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006 September 6, “Where Hairsplitting Can Become High Drama”, in New York Sun:",
          "text": "An incidental pleasure is his witty mastery of the scare quote and the square bracket.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, D Jeske, “Friendship and the grounds of reasons”, in papyrus.bib.umontreal.ca:",
          "text": "I put the relevant pronouns in scare quote because Bundy’s interviewers succeeded in getting Bundy to talk about his crimes only by allowing him to describe them in the third person",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A quotation mark deliberately used to provoke a reaction or to indicate that the author does not approve of a term or clause, rather than to identify a direct quotation."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "quotation mark",
          "quotation mark"
        ],
        [
          "provoke",
          "provoke"
        ],
        [
          "reaction",
          "reaction"
        ],
        [
          "approve",
          "approve"
        ],
        [
          "quotation",
          "quotation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly in the plural) A quotation mark deliberately used to provoke a reaction or to indicate that the author does not approve of a term or clause, rather than to identify a direct quotation."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "shudder quote"
        },
        {
          "word": "sneer quote"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "in-plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-scare quote.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b2/En-au-scare_quote.ogg/En-au-scare_quote.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/En-au-scare_quote.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "scare-quote"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "note": "(no equivalent exists; translation given for \"quotation marks\") 引號",
      "sense": "quotation mark used to provoke reaction"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "yǐnhào",
      "sense": "quotation mark used to provoke reaction",
      "word": "引号"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "quotation mark used to provoke reaction",
      "word": "ironinen lainausmerkki"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "quotation mark used to provoke reaction",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "guillemet ironique"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "quotation mark used to provoke reaction",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "ironisches Anführungszeichen"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "quotation mark used to provoke reaction",
      "tags": [
        "feminine",
        "plural"
      ],
      "word": "virgolette ironiche"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "quotation mark used to provoke reaction",
      "tags": [
        "Portugal",
        "feminine",
        "plural"
      ],
      "word": "aspas irónicas"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "quotation mark used to provoke reaction",
      "tags": [
        "Brazil",
        "feminine",
        "plural"
      ],
      "word": "aspas irônicas"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "quotation mark used to provoke reaction",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "cita de miedo"
    }
  ],
  "word": "scare quote"
}

Download raw JSONL data for scare quote meaning in English (4.5kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.