Scare quotes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Scare quotes are quotation marks used for purposes other than to identify a direct quotation, mostly as a flag to provoke in the reader a negative association for the word enclosed in the quotes. The conversational equivalent of scare quotes is a hand gesture known as air quotes or finger quotes which mimics the appearance of quotation marks.

Contents

The effect of using scare quotes is often similar to inserting so-called to modify a word. Scare quotes may thus be used to express disagreement with the original speaker's intended meaning without actually establishing grounds for disagreement, or even explicitly acknowledging it. As they essentially constitute an expression of disdain, scare quotes are sometimes called "sneer quotes". Scare quotes are generally avoided in serious, impartial writing, such as in encyclopedia articles.

Style guides generally recommend that scare quotes (and other quotation marks around words used in a special sense) are in the same style (single or double) as those used elsewhere in the work.[1]

Waitress: What'll you have?
Customer: Get me an order of "freedom fries"

Democrat: We've heard about these Republicans and their tax "relief".

Republican: The Democrats have proposed yet another form of "common sense" gun control.

Green party member: The Democrats and Republicans tell you all about their enormous "differences" from each other.

  1. ^ e.g. Butcher J, Drake C, Leach M (2006) Butcher's Copy-Editing: the Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Copy-Editors and Proofreaders. 4th edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.


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