American Dictionary of the English Language

PRETERI'TION, noun [Latin proeterio, to pass by.]

1. The act of going past; the state of being past.

2. In rhetoric, a figure by which, in pretending to pass over any thing, we make a summary mention of it; as, 'I will not say, he is valiant, he is learned, he is just, ' etc. The most artful praises are those bestowed by way of preterition