Why “anacoenosis” is a great word
ANACOENOSIS — [Noun] A rhetorical device in which a speaker directly appeals to the audience or opponents for their opinion or judgment on the matter under debate. From Ancient Greek ἀνακοίνωσις (anakoínōsis), from ἀνα- (ana-, "up, back, again") and κοινόω (koinóō, "to make common, to communicate"). Unlike a rhetorical question, a closed circuit of self-answered persuasion, or dialogismus, which reports an imagined conversation, anacoenosis is a genuine and perilous opening—a speaker handing the gavel, however briefly, to the crowd. It is the statesman cornered by logic, turning to the assembly with a 'What, then, would you have me do?'; the barrister pacing before the jury box, asking 'Do you find this just?'; or the lover, in a silent room, whispering 'Tell me, am I wrong?' In that suspended moment, the lonely architecture of argument becomes a common room, haunted by the ghosts of all possible answers.