straw man

Etymology
From 🇰🇲. Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1986 passim, shows first known usages for things insubstantial date to 1585-95. Universal Dictionary of the English Language, 1897, Vol 4, p. 4485, notes “man of straw” as “The figure of a man formed of an old suit of clothes stuffed with straw; hence, the mere resemblance of a man; one of no substance or means; an imaginary person.”

Compare 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬,, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬.

Noun

 * 1) A doll or scarecrow, particularly one stuffed with straw.
 * 2)  An innocuous person or someone of nominal or lesser importance, as a front man or straw boss.
 * 3)  An insubstantial concept, idea, endeavor or argument, particularly one deliberately set up to be weakly supported, e.g. by misrepresenting an opponent's argument by broadening or narrowing the scope of a premise, so that it can be easily knocked down; especially to impugn the strength of any related or contrasted thing or idea.
 * 4)   An outline serving as an initial proposal for a project, usually refined iteratively.
 * 1)   An outline serving as an initial proposal for a project, usually refined iteratively.
 * 1)   An outline serving as an initial proposal for a project, usually refined iteratively.

Translations

 * Bulgarian:
 * Catalan:
 * Finnish:
 * French:
 * German:
 * Greek:
 * Italian:
 * Macedonian: пла́шило, стра́шило
 * Portuguese:
 * Russian:, ,
 * Serbo-Croatian: страшило
 * Spanish:
 * Swedish: halmdocka, halmgubbe


 * Bulgarian: незначителен човек
 * Catalan:
 * Danish: stråmand
 * Finnish: mattimeikäläinen
 * French:
 * German:
 * Greek:
 * Hungarian:
 * Italian: uomo di paglia
 * Portuguese: ,
 * Spanish: hombre de paja


 * Bulgarian: слаб аргумент
 * Chinese:
 * Mandarin:
 * Danish: stråmand
 * Finnish:
 * French:
 * Portuguese:
 * Serbo-Croatian:
 * Slovene:
 * Swedish: halmgubbe, halmdocka


 * Portuguese:

Verb

 * 1) To falsely attribute an insubstantial argument (a straw man argument) to another through direct declaration or indirect implication; to put words in someone's mouth.
 * 2) * 1996 [Vale Press],, The Rise of Informal Logic, Windsor Studies in Argumentation, 2014, E-edition, page 178,
 * I have also argued that he is guilty of straw manning Copi and that his charge of shoddy reasoning against Kahane makes use of an equivocation on the concept of fallacy.
 * 1) * 1996 [Vale Press],, The Rise of Informal Logic, Windsor Studies in Argumentation, 2014, E-edition, page 178,
 * I have also argued that he is guilty of straw manning Copi and that his charge of shoddy reasoning against Kahane makes use of an equivocation on the concept of fallacy.