eiron

For Demosthenes and Theo - phrastus the eiron was an even less respectable liar: he understated his own powers specifically for the pur - pose of escaping responsibility.

IRONY NORMAN D. KNOX 1968

As Cicero put it, Socrates was always “pretend - ing to need information and professing admiration for the wisdom of his companion”; when Socrates 'inter - locutors were annoyed with him for behaving in this way they called him eiron, a vulgar term of reproach referring generally to any kind of sly deception with overtones of mockery.

IRONY NORMAN D. KNOX 1968

The term irony itself is rooted in the Greek eiron, or "a dissembler," or liar.

The Rule of Reason 2010

I suppose this is in part what Northrop Frye means by "the ironic mode" of thought, and William Empson by "ambiguity of feeling"; it has something to do, at least, with the eiron or "self-deprecating" (Frye's word) figure as hero, and, as well, an inclination to treat seriously of things all the while harboring a vague fear or ambivalence that such treatment will prove facile or dull-visioned when made public.

VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol VI No 2 1979