argumentum

[ ahr-gyuh-men-tuhm ]

noun

, plural ar·gu·men·ta [ahr-gy, uh, -, men, -t, uh].

1. argument ( def 3 ).

Word History and Origins

Origin of argumentum¹

From Latin

Example Sentences

But as a professor of communication, I observe that one of the most common errors people make in daily conversation is to appeal to antiquity – what scholars call the “argumentum ad antiquitatem” fallacy – which says that something is good simply because it is old, and because it has always been done this way.

From Salon

Apostrophe** or aporia*** or comprobatio* or argumentum ad populumM serve to put the speaker in a given relation with ‘Evading an issue by digression. You may have noticed it happening on the news. “

From Literature

Bringing up party rallies and private security forces may be condemned as an inadmissible argumentum ad Hitlerum, but it is also hardly grounds for complacency given the violent imagery of Trump’s rhetoric.

From Salon

Plenty of people have argued that Trumpism is just a distilled form of Republicanism, the argumentum ad absurdum of contemporary conservative politics.

From US News

Faced with a presidential candidate whose sole idea of logic is an argumentum ad baculum – an aggressive and illegitimate reliance upon threats and intimidation – she simply recognized the higher human obligation to speak while she still could.

From US News