What Are Scare Quotes?
Scare quotes are punctuation used to represent ironic, skeptic, or other nonstandard usage of terms. Although different writing style guides define scare quotes differently, the basic function of such quotes is to suggest that the words and phrases within the quotes mean something different than what they’re supposed to mean. Below are some examples of sentences with scare quotes:
- We had “fun” waiting in a long queue for over four hours at Disneyland.
- It’s hard to believe the Senator is a racist. What if it’s “fake news”?
- Every other person with no knowledge of politics is a “political expert” these days.
- He is as “saintly” as Jabba the Hutt.
Etymology of Scare Quotes
The term “scare quotes” was coined by Elizabeth Anscombe. She first used it in an essay titled Aristotle and the Sea Battle, which she wrote in 1956. The use of scare quotes gradually increased from 1960 onward; they became popular in the 1990s and are commonly used in informal writing to this day.
Scare Quotes Usage
Although scare quotes are popularly used as part of informal and formal language, they should be avoided in academic writing assignments like essays and research papers. Also, scare quotes that can be confused with normal quotation marks should be highlighted.
Whenever there is ambiguity associated with the usage of certain words or phrases, then it is common for writers to use scare quotes. However, it’s important to use discretion when employing them.
Some of the common uses of scare quotes include:
- Introducing new words or terminology: When there’s a novel word or terminology being introduced for the first time, then such words, phrases, or terminologies are enclosed in scare quotes.
- Indicating that a word, phrase, or term is slang: When uncommon terms, words and phrases with uncertain origin, or slang that is not popular or known to most people are used, then scare quotes are used to highlight such terms.
- Showing non-standard usage of terms: When a term is used to mean something other than what it actually means, then scare quotes are used to represent it. Scare quotes are also used to convey irony, skepticism, sarcasm, and uncertainty.
Scare quotes can be used to replace the phrase “so-called” in a sentence. However, the two should not be used together to avoid redundancy.
For example:
- John is a so-called actor who can’t emote.
In the above sentence, when “so-called” is replaced with scare quotes, the sentence still means the same.
- John is a so-called “actor” who can’t emote. X
- John is an “actor” who can’t emote. ✔
Misusing or overusing scare quotes should be avoided. It’s always better to use appropriate words whenever possible instead. However, if there’s uncertainty associated with a term, then it’s always safe to use scare quotes to highlight such uncertainty.
