Escamotage

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A creative or cunning maneuver used to deceive or evade detection
2. An act of skillful trickery meant to mislead or avoid an obvious outcome
3. A clever strategy employed to confuse or divert attention through deception

Etymology: The French verb "escamoter" meant "to make something vanish" by sleight of hand, and its origin is contested. Some dictionaries link it to the Provençal "escamotar", a verb describing the trick of slipping a card out of play or pocketing a coin, but the chain of descent is not settled. The noun "escamotage" was formed in French by adding the suffix "-age", which turns a verb into a noun for an action or its result, so "escamotage" names the act of making something disappear. The word reached English from French, where it kept its sense of a clever, deceptive manoeuvre. Its use in English is largely confined to writing about cunning dealings, often in politics or finance, where a sly sleight is hidden behind a respectable front.

Synonyms: sleight, conjuring, vanishing, deception, illusion

Antonyms: reveal, disclosure, expose, unveil, clarity