" APOPHASIS  (APO'PHASIS)   n.s.[Lat.    a denying.] A figure in rhetorick, by which the orator, speaking ironically, seems to wave what he would plainly insinuate; as, Neither will I mention those things, which if I should, you notwithstanding could neither confute or speak against them.Smith’sRhetorick. "

― Samuel Johnson , A Dictionary of the English Language (Complete and Unabridged in Two Volumes), Volume One