Charientismus (kar-i-en-tia’-mus): Mollifying harsh words by answering them with a smooth and appeasing mock.
A: You smell like a sewer pipe.
B: I like sewers, don’t you?
A: You can’t even make a decent insult.
B: Ha ha—a decent insult.
A: Where are you stupid-ass? In kindergarten?
B: Come on, everybody likes kindergarten.
A: You are clearly a complete nit wit. You are suffering from acute arrested development.
B: Talking about “arrested,” how’s your elder abuse case going? Oh, and by the way, you should remember, I have a PhD in Astrophysics and was up for a Nobel Prize last year while you were up for a bail hearing.
Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)
The Daily Trope excerpt are available on Amazon in paperback under the title of The Book of Tropes for $9.95. It is also available in Kindle format for $5.99.
The Daily Trope 