Wiktionary

litotes

See also: Litotes and lítotes

English

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Etymology

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Learned borrowing from Late Latin lītotēs, from Ancient Greek λιτότης (litótēs, literally “plainness”), from λιτός (litós, “simple”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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Examples (figure of speech)
  • She's not the nicest person I know (she is mean)
  • He's not exactly a rocket scientist (he is stupid)
  • Organizing these records is no small task (it is time-consuming)
  • Not bad (good)

litotes (countable and uncountable, plural litotes)

  1. (rhetoric) A figure of speech whereby something is stated by denying its opposite, particularly the negation of a negative quality to say something positive.
    Synonym: meiosis
    Antonym: hyperbole
    Hypernyms: irony, understatement, meiosis
    • 1895, William Congreve, “Introduction”, in G. S. Street, editor, The Comedies of William Congreve‎[1], volume 1, Methuen and Co.:
      The delicacy which prompts a later generation to reject that name is by no means necessarily a result of stricter habits, is far more often due to the flatness which comes of untiring repetition and to the greater piquancy of litotes.

Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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Further reading

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Anagrams

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French

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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litotes f

  1. plural of litote

Latin

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Ancient Greek λιτότης (litótēs).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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lītotēs f (genitive lītotētos); third declension (Late Latin)

  1. (rhetoric) litotes (rhetorical understatement)

Declension

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Third-declension noun (Greek-type, normal variant).

Case Singular Plural
Nominative lītotēs lītotētes
Genitive lītotētos lītotētum
Dative lītotētī lītotētibus
Accusative lītotēta lītotētas
Ablative lītotēte lītotētibus
Vocative lītotēs lītotētes

Descendants

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  • → English: litotes (learned)
  • → French: litote (learned)
  • → German: Litotes (learned)
  • → Italian: litote (learned)
  • → Polish: litotes (learned)

References

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  • litotes in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  • Souter, Alexander (1949) “lītotēs”, in A Glossary of Later Latin to 600 A.D.‎[2], 1st edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, published 1957, page 234

Norwegian Bokmål

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Noun

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litotes m (definite singular litotesen, indefinite plural litoteser, definite plural litotesene)

  1. form removed with the spelling reform of 2005; superseded by litot

Norwegian Nynorsk

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Noun

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litotes m (definite singular litotesen, indefinite plural litotesar, definite plural litotesane)

  1. (pre-2005) alternative form of litot

Polish

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Polish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia pl

Etymology

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Learned borrowing from Latin lītotēs. Doublet of litota.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /liˈtɔ.tɛs/
  • Rhymes: -ɔtɛs
  • Syllabification: li‧to‧tes

Noun

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litotes m inan (indeclinable)

  1. (rhetoric) litotes (figure of speech whereby something is stated by denying its opposite, particularly the negation of a negative quality to say something positive)
    Synonym: litota

Further reading

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  • litotes in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

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Etymology

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Learned borrowing from Late Latin lītotēs, from Ancient Greek λιτότης (litótēs).

Pronunciation

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  • Hyphenation: li‧to‧tes

Noun

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litotes f (invariable)

  1. (rhetoric) litotes (an understatement employed for rhetoric effect)

Spanish

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Noun

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litotes f pl

  1. plural of litote
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