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ad hominem adv.
Appealing to personal considerations rather than to logic or reason:
Debaters should avoid ad hominem arguments that question their opponents'
motives.
Usage Note: As the
principal meaning of the preposition ad suggests, the homo of
ad hominem was originally the person to whom an argument was addressed,
not its subject. The phrase denoted an argument designed to appeal to the
listener's emotions rather than to reason, as in the sentence The
Republicans' evocation of pity for the small farmer struggling to maintain his
property is a purely ad hominem argument for reducing inheritance taxes.
This usage appears to be waning; only 37%
of the Usage Panel finds this sentence acceptable. The phrase now chiefly
describes an argument based on the failings of an adversary rather than on the
merits of the case: Ad hominem attacks on one's opponent are a
tried-and-true strategy for people who have a case that is weak. Ninety
percent of the Panel finds this sentence acceptable. The _expression_ now also has
a looser use in referring to any personal attack, whether or not it is part of
an argument, as in It isn't in the best interests of the nation for the press
to attack him in this personal, ad hominem way. This use is acceptable to
65% of the Panel. ·Ad hominem has
also recently acquired a use as a noun denoting personal attacks, as in
“Notwithstanding all the ad hominem, Gingrich insists that he and Panetta can
work together” (Washington Post). This usage may raise some eyebrows, though it
appears to be gaining ground in journalistic style. ·A modern coinage patterned
on ad hominem is ad feminam, as in “Its treatment of Nabokov and
its ad feminam attack on his wife Vera often border on character assassination”
(Simon Karlinsky). Though some would argue that this neologism is unnecessary
because the Latin word homo refers to humans generically, rather than to
the male sex, in some contexts ad feminam has a more specific meaning
than ad hominem, being used to describe attacks on women as women or
because they are women, as in “Their recourse... to ad feminam attacks evidences
the chilly climate for women's leadership on campus” (Donna M.
Riley).
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