Accismus

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Accismus is a feigned refusal of something someone actually wants. In rhetoric, it is a figure of speech—an ironic way of saying no to something while secretly desiring it. The word comes from ancient Greek, often given as "akkismos." Some old sources say it was formed from Acco (Akko), the name of a foolish old woman famed for this habit, while others link the root to idle activities like gossip or looking in a mirror. Because of its tricky nature, accismus has been described at times as a virtue and at other times as a vice, depending on the context.