Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A syllogism in which one of the premises or the conclusion is not stated explicitly.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In Aristotle's logic, an inference from likelihoods and signs, which with Aristotle is the same as a rhetorical syllogism.
  • noun A syllogism one of the premises of which is unexpressed.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Logic) An argument consisting of only two propositions, an antecedent and consequent deduced from it; a syllogism with one premise omitted; as, We are dependent; therefore we should be humble. Here the major proposition is suppressed. The complete syllogism would be, Dependent creatures should be humble; we are dependent creatures; therefore we should be humble.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A by and large statement, a maxim, a less-than-100% argument.
  • noun logic A syllogism with a required but unstated assumption.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin enthȳmēma, from Greek enthūmēma, a rhetorical argument, from enthūmeisthai, to consider : en-, in; see en– + thūmos, mind.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ἐνθύμημα (enthýmēma, "thought, consideration"), from ἐν (en, "within, with") + θυμός (thymos, "soul, life").

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Examples

  • I call the enthymeme a rhetorical syllogism, and the example a rhetorical induction.

    Aristotle's Rhetoric - Selected Moments 2010

  • I call the enthymeme a rhetorical syllogism, and the example a rhetorical induction.

    Rhetoric Aristotle 2002

  • An enthymeme is an argument that’s built on major premise, minor premise, and conclusion, but the speaker/writer leaves out one of the premises because it’s assumed that everyone understands and agrees with that premise.

    Some other things I’ve been thinking about « Dyepot, Teapot 2005

  • The example is an induction, the enthymeme is a syllogism, and the apparent enthymeme is an apparent syllogism.

    Aristotle's Rhetoric - Selected Moments 2010

  • The enthymeme is a sort of syllogism, and the consideration of syllogisms of all kinds, without distinction, is the business of dialectic, either of dialectic as a whole or of one of its branches.

    Aristotle's Rhetoric - Selected Moments 2010

  • Every kind of syllogism is composed of propositions, and the enthymeme is a particular kind of syllogism composed of the aforesaid propositions.

    Rhetoric Aristotle 2002

  • Aristotle calls the enthymeme the “body of persuasion,” implying that everything else is only an addition or accident to the core of the persuasive process.

    Aristotle's Rhetoric Rapp, Christof 2002

  • The enthymeme is a sort of syllogism, and the consideration of syllogisms of all kinds, without distinction, is the business of dialectic, either of dialectic as a whole or of one of its branches.

    Rhetoric Aristotle 2002

  • The example is an induction, the enthymeme is a syllogism, and the apparent enthymeme is an apparent syllogism.

    Rhetoric Aristotle 2002

  • Depreciation are one kind of enthymeme, viz. the kind used to show that a thing is great or small; just as there are other kinds used to show that a thing is good or bad, just or unjust, and anything else of the sort.

    Rhetoric Aristotle 2002

Comments

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  • "Accents has the original strip of paper a valuable addition to my bibliophile's treasury, which contains a false enthymeme or involuntary syllogism"

    The No Variations by Luis Chitarroni, translated by Darren Koolman, p 90

    September 16, 2013

  • A story may hide no secret subtext.
    Events need not be always complex -
    Can be what they seem -
    Like an enthymeme,
    With causes made plain by effects.

    January 3, 2015