Archival euphemistic double negatives encode reputational protection and unmentionable dishonor.

Evidence

The phrase that followed Valck through the colonial archives and his unillustrious career was that he was “neither an incompetent man nor one without means.” The double negative is telling. The assessment was deliberately circumspect, a product of the protection his connections afforded and the dishonor he and those close to him left discreetly unmentioned before and after his death. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1420

Categorization

• XREF: Interesting micro-example relevant to how colonial archives encode reputation — connects to postcolonial archival critique literatures.