Eschew obfuscation

Eschew obfuscation, also stated as: "eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation", is a common humorous saying of English teachers and professors when lecturing about proper writing techniques.

Literally, the meaning is "avoid ambiguity, adopt clarity", but the use of relatively uncommon words in the English language itself causes confusion, making the phrase a prime example of irony.

The phrase has appeared in print at least as early as 1959, when it was used as a section heading in a NASA document. [United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration, "NASA Technical Memorandum" (1959), p. 171.]

The linguist Paul Grice used the phrase in the "Maxim of Manner", one of the Gricean maxims.

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