Litotes – a new-to-me word

11 Dec 2013

Litotes – a new-to-me word

I’m quite a fan of understatements and decided to look some up on the web. While browsing around I came across another word: litotes, which is a special kind of understatement.

The Free Dictionary gives several definitions and examples including the following:

A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite, as in ‘This is no small problem‘.

I always enjoy new words and this one sounds very learned. Also some of the sources the Free Dictionary quotes consider it to be a plural. I’m not sure it gets used as a plural – if an author includes only one in his work can a reader talk about ‘these litotes are …’ or ‘this litotes is …’. I think I would go for the latter.

I doubt if I will actually ever be able to work it into my conversation. If I did would I sound learned or pretentious?

Posted in Out and about and tagged definition, literary term, litotes, rhetoric, rhetorical device, understatement

6 thoughts on “Litotes – a new-to-me word”

silentlyheardonce on December 16, 2013 at 5:31 am said:

Thesaurus is my favorite book. New words for old words. Always learner when uncommon words are use. I would think.

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- E A M Harris on December 16, 2013 at 6:04 pm said:
  
  I’m fond of thesauri too. Laying down a store of new words is interesting. It’s nice that you think that using uncommon words sounds learned.
  
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bridget whelan on December 11, 2013 at 11:00 am said:

Don’t want to show off but I mention litotes in Back to Creative Writing School ebook…and quote a couple of lines from Andrew Marvell. But it’s not all high minded – the next example of understatement I give is this old joke :

A husband comes home from work to find his wife being chased around the kitchen by a murderer with a large axe. The man assesses the situation and asks, “Shall I get my own dinner then, dear?”

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- E A M Harris on December 15, 2013 at 7:42 pm said:
  
  I’ve not seen that joke before – it’s great, thank you for it. Having seen it I realise that quite a lot of jokes depend on litotes and other kinds of understatement.
  
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Francina on December 11, 2013 at 10:47 am said:

I would say learned, because I would look the meaning up if you would use it. Never heard of it either before.

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- E A M Harris on December 15, 2013 at 7:46 pm said:
  
  You’re obviously a really nice and positive person to pick on the positive opinion. And a true user of the dictionary, which is one of my favourite books.
  
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e a m harris

Roaming the byways of literature