This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources. Find sources: "Figleaf" linguistics – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2024) |
In linguistics, a figleaf is defined as language used to prevent a bigoted statement from being perceived as bigoted,[1] for example, that a person making a racist statement is not racist.[1] The concept of a figleaf was created by Jennifer Saul, who coined "racial figleaves" and "gender figleaves", who says that they come from the social norms, "Don't be racist" and "Don't be sexist".[1]