kafkatrap
Syllables: Kaf·ka·trap/ˈkæfkəˌtræp/US/ˈkɑfkəˌtræp/
kafkatrap is the alternative letter-case form of Kafkatrap.
Noun capitalized: Kafkatrap
Kafkatrap (plural Kafkatraps)
- A sophistical rhetorical device in which any denial by an accused person serves as evidence of guilt.
- Jill said Jack was paranoid, and when he told her he was not she just nodded knowingly. It was a perfect Kafkatrap.
- One very notable pathology is a form of argument that, reduced to essence, runs like this: "Your refusal to acknowledge that you are guilty of {sin, racism, sexism, homophobia, oppression …} confirms that you are guilty of {sin, racism, sexism, homophobia, oppression …}." I've been presented with...2010 July 18, Eric S[teven] Raymond, “Kafkatrapping”, in Armed and Dangerous (blog), archived from the original on 19 Dec 2020
Verb capitalized: Kafkatrap
Kafkatrap (third-person singular simple present Kafkatraps, present participle Kafkatrapping, simple past and past participle Kafkatrapped)
- To employ a Kafkatrap against (someone).
- The aim of the kafkatrap is to produce a kind of free-floating guilt in the subject, a conviction of sinfulness that can be manipulated by the operator to make the subject say and do things that are convenient to the operator's personal, political, or religious goals. Ideally, the subject will then...2010 July 18, Eric S[teven] Raymond, “Kafkatrapping”, in Armed and Dangerous (blog), archived from the original on 19 Dec 2020
- Progressive bullies seem to delight in kafkatrapping, as it's their preferred strategy of attack in Social Media Land. So you should be prepared for it.2019 March 13, John Faithful Hamer, “How to Deal with a Progressive Bully”, in The Post Millennial, Montreal, Que.: The Post Millennial Corporation, archived from the original on 26 Jan 2021
Forms of kafkatrap
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | kafkatraps |
| plural | Kafkatraps |
| alternative form | kafkatrap |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | kafkatraps |
| present participle | kafkatrapping |
| past participle | kafkatrapped |
| past | kafkatrapped |
| third-person singular present | Kafkatraps |
| present participle | Kafkatrapping |
| past participle | Kafkatrapped |
| past | Kafkatrapped |
Origin of kafkatrap
From Kafka + trap, coined by American programmer & open source advocate Eric S. Raymond in 2010 (see the quotation below) in reference to the novel Der Proceß (The Trial, 1925) by the Bohemian author Franz Kafka (1883–1924), in which a man is accused of crimes that are never specified, and every defense is treated as proof of guilt.
Words formed from kafkatrap
Questions about kafkatrap
- What does kafkatrap mean?
- Kafkatrap means a sophistical rhetorical device in which any denial by an accused person serves as evidence of guilt.
- What is kafkatrap the alternative letter-case form of?
- Kafkatrap is the alternative letter-case form of Kafkatrap.
- What part of speech is kafkatrap?
- Kafkatrap can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce kafkatrap?
- Kafkatrap is pronounced /ˈkæfkəˌtræp/ (UK).
- What is the plural of kafkatrap?
- The plural of kafkatrap is kafkatraps.
Words near kafkatrap in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: kafkatrap (page history and authors); Kafkatrap (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Kafkatrap.wav.
Cite this entry: “kafkatrap.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kafkatrap. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.