whimperative
n.— «The whimperative and the impositive are polite ways of commanding or requesting through indirection. Sadock states: “Every language provides subtle and not-so-subtle means of encoding information about the intentions of the speaker and his assumptions about the speech situation in the sentences he uses”….At times, deliberate ambiguity of illocutionary force may be used defensively in making a provocative utterance because the speaker can claim he never meant the statement in the way it was conceived by the listener.» —“The Question Intonation in Assertions” by Marvin K.L. Ching American Speech Summer, 1982. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A kerfuffle is a fuss, bother, or disturbance. It’s from Scots curfuffle, likely from Scottish Gaelic car, meaning “turn,” “bend,” or “twist,” plus fuffle, a Scots word that means “to disorder” or “to ruffle.” Early forms like carfuffle and...
Andres from Washington Heights, New York, heard a radio report suggesting that the same anatomy that lets humans speak also makes us vulnerable to choking, and he wanted to know more. The answer lies in the physical trade-off that sets humans apart...