Why Do People Use Scare Quotes?

The practice of using punctuation to indicate verbatim speech seems to have had its origins in the diple, a caret-like ancient Greek marking used to call attention to part of a text. By the late 15th century, the diple had been replaced by a pair of inverted commas placed in the left margins to indicate quotations, and by end of the 18th century the inverted commas were being used to open and close quoted material.

Single and double quotes battled it out for a time, with double quotes emerging as the norm by the 19th century for quoted speech and single quotes for reported speech within a quote. Quote marks were also used for the titles of articles and other short works.

By the 20th century, editorial conventions for quoting were stable and quotation marks had been extended to new uses, such as signaling technical terms, identifying cited words, and to mean “so-called” (this last, a favorite of Henry James).

It’s easy to imagine how such new uses emerged. Quotes for technical terms signal to the reader that the author is introducing a concept unfamiliar to the reader. The quotes say, “I am calling something this.” The writer usually omits the quotes after the first mention (where, hopefully, the term is defined, even if just by context).

Quotes for technical terms are one form of noting unfamiliar usage. Another is citing a word as a word—the philosopher’s “use-mention distinction,” as in “‘Amy’ has three letters.” The function is citation, so quotes are again a natural convention. This use of quotes seems to have originated, or at least been popularized by W. V. O. Quine’s 1940 book “Mathematical Logic” (insofar as a book on mathematical logic can popularize anything). The practice of using quote marks around unfamiliar terms or word used as words has been somewhat supplanted by italicization, in part because software has democratized font choice.

Scare quotes are used when writers wish to distance themselves from the words they use. They are the written equivalent of the gestural air quotes. Such quotes are a typographical shudder or sneer, and “shudder quotes” and “sneer quotes” are alternate terms for them, and more descriptive as well. When used to introduce a term that a writer would normally avoid, the quotes can be a type of shudder: “The ‘gig’ economy has arrived in full-force.” Or at least that’s what people call it.

When used to introduce a characterization a writer disagrees with, the quotes sneer: “Management hired several 'consultants' to develop the new business plan.” Several so-called consultants. Sometimes the difference is tough to discern, as when...

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