'paralepsis' originates from Greek, specifically the word 'paraleipsis' (παράλειψις), where the prefix 'para-' meant 'beside, beyond' and the root 'leipein' meant 'to leave or omit'.

'paralepsis' passed into Late Latin and Medieval Latin as 'paralepsis' (or via the form 'paraleipsis') and was adopted into English from learned Latin and Greek sources in discussions of rhetoric.

Initially, it meant 'an omission' or 'the act of leaving out'; over time the term came to denote the rhetorical technique of claiming not to mention something while actually mentioning it to draw attention to it.