He who acts with reluctance does not say everything he knows.
Reticence is a term in our language that comes from the Latin word reticentĭa . The concept can be used with respect to the position that a person adopts when they only say a part of everything they know about a certain matter.
For example: “The young man spoke with reluctance for fear of reprisals,” “The team coach always shows reluctance when it comes to telling what happens inside the locker room,” “Martina told everything in great detail and without reluctance.” who lived in the television studio.”
Examples of reluctance
Suppose that the Chief of Staff of a country leaves a meeting in which the president and several ministers participated. When approached by journalists, the Chief of Staff does not want to tell everything that was discussed at the meeting since there are confidential things that cannot be revealed . Therefore, he expresses himself to the media with reluctance: that is, mentioning only some of the issues that were discussed and without giving too many details.
Reluctance can also be linked to distrust , doubts or resentment : “There is reluctance in companies to hire new employees due to economic uncertainty,” “There is reluctance in the Israeli government regarding the peace agreement,” “Argentines They are reluctant to go to the doctor.”
Reluctance can be associated with distrust or caution.
a literary figure
Reticence, on the other hand, is the name of a literary figure that implies not completing an expression or a phrase , implying what is not said: “If the director of the magazine published everything he knows about the candidate…” . In this context, reticence is also known as aposiopesis .
Information that is not included in a sentence of this type is considered obvious, either because it can be deduced using logic or because the interlocutor is aware of it. In the previous example, although we do not know the candidate - for a political position - mentioned, we can infer that the things that the director of the magazine could publish about him would not leave him in a very good position .
Characteristics of reticence
The origin of the word aposiopesis is found in the Greek language, where its meaning refers to "remaining silent ." It is worth mentioning that one of the characteristics of this literary figure, especially when read aloud, is that it must give the impression that the speaker does not have the desire to complete the sentence, or that he cannot do so, although this is not really the case. . The intonation should suggest those data that are not expressly mentioned , and this can be perceived through different emotions, such as anger, fear or joy.
Not saying everything you know regarding a given topic can be provocative in certain contexts , comical in others, but when business is involved, things change. In the field of insurance, to cite one of the most common examples, reluctance can be considered a crime, since the person who wants to hire the services of a company to protect their belongings or their health has the legal obligation to provide all the relevant data required before registering.
To ensure that contractors do not hide information, companies have specialized personnel, such as medical professionals, who have the task of contrasting the statements with the real state of the items or the people who wish to receive the service. Health insurance does not always admit all its potential clients, but often requires certain requirements, such as a maximum age limit, that they have not suffered certain diseases or that they do not have a chronic condition that makes them prone to accidents.