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ad hominem (adjective, adverb):

adjective
1: appealing to feelings or prejudices rather than intellect
2: marked by or being an attack on an opponent’s character rather than by an answer to the contentions made

adverb
: in an ad hominem manner

Source : Merriam -Webster

Etymology : Ad hominem literally means “to the person” in New Latin (Latin as used since the end of the medieval period). In centuries past, the term was used in the phrase “argument ad hominem” (or argumentum ad hominem, to use the full New Latin phrase) to refer to a valid method of persuasion by which one takes advantage of an opponent’s interests or feelings in a debate, instead of just sticking to general principles. What exactly came into play in such persuasions eventually expanded, and ad hominem came to describe an attack aimed at an opponent’s character rather than their ideas. It’s in this decidedly less civil application that ad hominem appears today. The hostile nature of such attacks has led to an understanding of the term as meaning “against the person,” rather than its original Latin meaning of “to the person.”

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