Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In rhetoric, frankness or boldness of speech; reprehension; rebuke.

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

  • noun (Rhet.) Boldness or freedom of speech.

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

  • noun rhetoric boldness or freedom in speech; the seeking of forgiveness for such speech

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Ancient Greek παρρησία, from πᾶν (pan, "all") (English pan-) + ῥῆσις, ῥῆμα (rhēma, "utterance, speech").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word parrhesia.

Examples

  • The word parrhesia, however, is to be found neither in Pindar, nor in Aeschylus and Sophocles, and first appears in Euripides 'Hippolytus (line 422; performed in 428 B.C.) and Ion (lines 672, 675; of uncertain date).

    Dictionary of the History of Ideas ARNALDO MOMIGLIANO 1968

  • We doubt whether the word parrhesia pleased Cleon, but it must have pleased

    Dictionary of the History of Ideas ARNALDO MOMIGLIANO 1968

  • And it is such a speech as is elsewhere called parrhesia, -- that is, a freedom and liberty in the declaration of the truth conceived.

    Pneumatologia 1616-1683 1967

  • That spiritual confidence and authority available to the average believer was confirmed in Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, where I learned that boldness comes from the original Greek word, parrhesia, meaning "outspokenness; unreserved utterance; freedom of speech; with frankness, candor, careful courage; and the opposite of cowardice, timidity or fear."

    Larry Ross: Oral Roberts Showed Us the Way to the Throne 2009

  • In parrhesia, the speaker chooses "truth instead of falsehood or silence, the risk of death instead of life and security, criticism instead of flattery and moral duty instead of self-interest and moral apathy".

    Let the law save whistleblowers, not silence them | Nick Cohen 2011

  • On Foucault's reading, the worker who criticises his boss uses parrhesia.

    Let the law save whistleblowers, not silence them | Nick Cohen 2011

  • Yugo KovachWinterborne HoughtonDorsetNick Cohen's piece ("Let the law save whistleblowers, not silence them", Comment) highlights the whistleblower's dilemma – how do we strive to encourage parrhesia ("free" or "true" speech) and prevent the damaging consequence of wrongdoing or malpractice in the workplace while at the same time protecting those who speak up and challenge the hierarchy?

    Stop immigration to help the British unemployed get jobs | Letters 2011

  • We want to encourage parrhesia-the Greek concept of fearless speech Foucault discusses.

    Spirituality 2009

  • The 12-year-old from Kingston, Jamaica, showed no mercy in demolishing words like "" daedal '' (intricate) and "" parrhesia '' (frank speech).

    A Daedal Test Of Parrhesia 2008

  • The Berkeley lectures deal with the ancient ideal of “truthful speaking” (parrhesia), regarded as a central political and moral virtue.

    Michel Foucault Gutting, Gary 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Boldness or freedom of speech.

    December 17, 2007

  • JM always scores below parrhesia.

    April 5, 2011

  • From tee to the green it is easier
    To practice selective amnesia.
    Too sharp is the tooth
    Of the scorekeeper's truth
    Enforcing relentless parrhesia.

    March 22, 2015