litotes

See also: Litotes and lítotes

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /laɪˈtəʊ.tiːz/, enPR: lītō'tēz
• Hyphenation: li‧to‧tes

• Audio (RP)

  (file)

Noun

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) An ironic 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

• litotic
• litotical
• litotically

Translations

rhetoric: stating a point by denying its opposite

• Catalan: lítote f
• Esperanto: litoto, maltroigo
• Finnish: litoteesi
• French: litote (fr) f
• German: Litotes (de) f
• Greek: λιτότητα (el) (litótita)

  Ancient: λιτότης f (litótēs)

• Ido: litoto (io)
• Irish: liotóid f
• Italian: litote (it) f
• Manx: fo-raa m
• Polish: litota f, litotes (pl) m
• Portuguese: litotes (pt) f
• Russian: лито́та (ru) f (litóta)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: литота f

  Latin: litota (sh) f

• Sicilian: lìtuti f, litoti f
• Spanish: litote (es) f, lítotes (es) f
• Tagalog: makumbaba

See also

• paradiastole
• double negative
• Appendix:Snowclones/not the X-est in the Y

Further reading

• litotes on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Litotes in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• Sottile, oil test, toilest, toilets

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /li.tɔt/

Noun

litotes f

1. plural of litote

Latin

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek λιτότης (litótēs).

Noun

lītotēs f (genitive lītotētos); third declension

1. (Late Latin, rhetoric) litotes (rhetorical understatement)

Declension

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

• → English: litotes
• → French: litote
  • → Spanish: litote
• → Italian: litote

References

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

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

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

Noun

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

1. (pre-2005) alternative form of litot

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin litotes, from Ancient Greek λιτότης (litótēs), from λιτός (litós, “simple”).

Pronunciation

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

Noun

litotes m inan (indeclinable)

1. (rhetoric) litotes

   Synonym: litota

Further reading

• litotes in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• litotes in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

Noun

litotes f (invariable)

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

Spanish

Noun

litotes f pl

1. plural of litote