different between equivocation vs amphibology

English

Alternative forms

• æquivocation (archaic)

Etymology

c. 1380, from Old French equivocation, from Medieval Latin aequivoc?ti?nem, accusative singular of aequivoc?ti?, from aequivoc?, from Late Latin aequivocus (“ambiguous, equivocal”), from Latin aequus (“equal”) + voc? (“call”);a calque of Ancient Greek ???????? (hom?numía).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??kw?v??ke???n/, /??kw?v??ke??n?/, /??kw?v??ke??n/
• Hyphenation: e?quiv?o?ca?tion
• Rhymes: -e???n

Noun

equivocation (countable and uncountable, plural equivocations)

1. (logic) A logical fallacy resulting from the use of multiple meanings of a single expression.
2. The use of expressions susceptible of a double signification, possibly intentionally and with the aim of misleading.

Related terms

• amphiboly, evasion, evasiveness, prevarication

Translations

References

Old French

Noun

equivocation f (oblique plural equivocations, nominative singular equivocation, nominative plural equivocations)

1. equivocation

   Si avoit trovee occasion de li gaber par l'equivocation de son nom

English

Alternative forms

• amphibologie (obsolete)

Etymology

From French amphibologie, from late Latin amphibologia, earlier amphibolia, from Ancient Greek ????????? (amphibolía, “ambiguity”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /amf??b?l?d?i/

Noun

amphibology (countable and uncountable, plural amphibologies)

1. (archaic) Amphiboly.
   • , Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.133:

     In Athens men learn'd […] to resolve a sophisticall argument, and to confound the imposture and amphibologie of words, captiously enterlaced together […].

   • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, London: Edw. Dod & Nath. Ekins, 1650, Book I, Chapter 4, p. 10,^[1]

     […] there are but two [fallacies] worthy our notation; and unto which the rest may be referred: that is the fallacie of Æquivocation and Amphibologie; which conclude from the ambiguity of some one word, or the ambiguous syntaxis of many put together.