APORON, or APORIME, a problem difficult to resolve, and which has never been resolved, though it be not, in itself, impossible.
The word is derived from απορ which signifies something very difficult, and impracticable; being formed from the privative α- and πορ, passage. Such we conceive the quadrature of the circle; the duplication of the cube; the trisection of an angle, &c. When a question was proposed to any of the Greek philosophers, especially of the sect of Academists; if he could not give a solution, his answer was, Απορῶ, I cannot see through it.—This word is also used by some law writers for an inexplicable speech or discourse.