Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An attempt to explain something obscure in terms of something else which is even more obscure.
- noun logic A type of
fallacious argument in which one attempts to prove something unknown by relying upon an assumption that is also unknown.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Latin for the unknown by the more unknown.
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Examples
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rolig commented on the word ignotum per ignotius
Lat. "the unknown through the more unknown": "the action of offering an explanation that is harder to understand than the thing it is meant to explain" (Oxford American Dictionaries).
December 19, 2007
reesetee commented on the word ignotum per ignotius
I know people like this.
December 19, 2007
rolig commented on the word ignotum per ignotius
I am one of those people!
December 22, 2007
she commented on the word ignotum per ignotius
Obscurum per obscurius is very similar: "the unclear by means of the more unclear" (rather than 'unknown').
September 3, 2008
Prolagus commented on the word ignotum per ignotius
I used this idiom right now. I was talking about the species problem with my lifemate, and this is our conclusion.
September 3, 2008