contextomy

The act or practice of quoting somebody out of context, often to give a false impression of what they said.

Noun

  1. The act or practice of quoting somebody out of context, often to give a false impression of what they said.
    • …saying that the Literary Gazette had committed the Chicago Tribune's habitual crime of contextomy against me. - 1964, Milton Mayer, What can a man do?: A selection of his most challenging writings, page 33:
    • The competent quoteman, no matter how eager he is to outwit his opponent, will have neither the need nor the inclination to stoop to contextomy of the flagrantly mendacious sort. - 1967, Paul F. Boller, Quotemanship:...
    • The prosecution would have to prove that audiences were misled by the practice, known as contextomy. Those who break the laws could face fines […] - 2008 May 29, Amol Rajan, “Excellent! Theatres forced to withdraw...

Origin

From context + -tomy.

Forms

contextomies

Synonyms

quote mining

Derived

contextomize