aporia

Borrowed from Latin aporia, from Ancient Greek ἀπορία (aporía), from ἄπορος (áporos, “impassable”), from ἀ- (a-, “a-”) + πόρος (póros, “passage”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əˈpɔːɹɪə/

aporia (plural aporias)

1. (rhetoric) An expression of deliberation with oneself regarding uncertainty or doubt as to how to proceed.
   • 2012, Andy Martin, ‘Text Messenger’, Literary Review 404:

     Meanings are superposed in an aporia – not ‘either/or’, but ‘and/and’.

   • 2016, Ian McEwan, Nutshell:

     What they intend sickens and frightens them, and they can never speak of it directly. Instead, wrapped in whispers are ellipses, euphemisms, mumbled aporia followed by throat-clearing and a brisk change of subject.

2. (philosophy, post-structuralism) An insoluble contradiction in a text's meaning; a logical impasse suggested by a text or speaker.

   Synonyms: impasse, paradox, contradiction

   • 2009, Mark Fisher, chapter 3, in Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?, Zero Books, →ISBN, page 19:

     But Green issues are already a contested zone, already a site where politicization is being fought for. In what follows, I want to stress two other aporias in capitalist realism, which are not yet politicized to anything like the same degree. The first is mental health.

• Aporia on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑporiɑ/, [ˈɑpo̞ˌriɑ]
• Hyphenation: a‧po‧ri‧a

aporia

1. aporia

Ancient Greek

aporia f (plural aporie)

1. aporia

• rapaio

aporia

1. first-person singular conditional of apor
2. third-person singular conditional of apor