President Obama: "We Don't Operate on Innuendo"

Lookups for innuendo spiked after President Obama answered a reporter’s question about the investigation into Clinton's email practices. The question followed the FBI’s announcement that emails sent and received by an aide to Hillary Clinton would be the subject of a new investigation. This announcement has been criticized by many lawmakers and commentators as being unusual so close to election day.

The president said:

I do think that there is a norm that when there are investigations we don’t operate on innuendo, and we don’t operate on incomplete information, and we don’t operate on leaks.

Innuendo means “a statement which indirectly suggests that someone has done something immoral, improper, etc.” and is a synonym of hint or insinuation. It comes from the Latin verb nutare, which means “to nod,” and literally translates as “by nodding” and, figuratively, “by hinting.”

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