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LITOTES
LITOTES [Stress: ‘lie-TOE-teez’]. In RHETORIC, a positive and often emphatic statement made by denying something negative, as when St Paul called himself ‘a citizen of no mean city’ (Acts 21:39). Common phrases involving litotes include in no small measure and by no means negligible. See MEIOSIS.
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litotes
li·to·tes / ˈlītəˌtēz; ˈlit-; līˈtōtēz/ • n. Rhetoric ironical understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary (e.g., you won't be sorry, meaning you'll be glad).
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litotes
litotes ironical understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary (e.g. I shan't be sorry for I shall be glad). Recorded from the late 16th century, the word comes via late Latin from Greek, ultimately from litos ‘plain, meagre’.
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litotes
litotes (lī´tətēz´), figure of speech in which a statement is made by indicating the negative of its opposite, e.g., "not many" meaning "a few." A form of irony, litotes is meant to emphasize by understating. Its opposite is hyperbole.
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litotes
litotes (rhet.) affirmative expressed by the negative of the contrary, as ‘a citizen of no mean city’. XVII. — late L. — Gr. lītótēs, f. lītós single, simple, meagre.
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litotes
litotes •atlantes, Cervantes
•Ecclesiastes • penates • gentes
•Orestes, testes, Thyestes
•Achates, Euphrates
•diabetes • striptease
•pyrites, Stylites, troglodytes
•Orontes • Boötes • Procrustes
•Harpocrates, Hippocrates, Isocrates, Socrates
•litotes • Surtees • Dives
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