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litotes (LAY-tuh-teez, LIT-uh-teez, lay-TOH-teez) - n., (rhetoric) an understatement where an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite.
As in "not bad," "no small feat," "not the nicest person ever." Note that depending on how it's used, it could be ironic denial or a neutral statement: "She's not bad looking," depending on how it's said, could mean "She's gorgeous" or "She's neither ugly nor beautiful." Like all figures of rhetoric, the ancient Greeks thought about it before we ever did, and we adopted their word: lītotēs, the property of being light (not heavy), from lītos, simple/plain.
---L.
As in "not bad," "no small feat," "not the nicest person ever." Note that depending on how it's used, it could be ironic denial or a neutral statement: "She's not bad looking," depending on how it's said, could mean "She's gorgeous" or "She's neither ugly nor beautiful." Like all figures of rhetoric, the ancient Greeks thought about it before we ever did, and we adopted their word: lītotēs, the property of being light (not heavy), from lītos, simple/plain.
---L.
