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Litotes
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In rhetoric, litotes is a figure of speech in which a speaker, rather than making a certain claim, denies its opposite; for example, rather than call a person attractive, one might say she's "not too bad to look at." Litotes can be used to weaken a statement — "It's bad, but it's O.K." can be seen as self-contradictory, but one can weaken the first part using litotes, producing "It's not good, but it's O.K.," which is a reasonable statement. Conversely, litotes can be used as a form of understatement, strengthening or emphasizing a statement, as in the first example above. The interpretation of litotes thus depends on context, including cultural context.
Contents |
| Litotes: | As a means of saying: |
| "[…] no ordinary city." Acts 21:39 (NIV) | "[…] a very impressive city." |
| "That [sword] was not useless / to the warrior now." (Beowulf) | "The sword was useful." |
| "That does not surprise me." | "As is to be expected." |
| "He was not unfamiliar with the works of Dickens." | "He was well acquainted with the works of Dickens." |
| "The food was not bad." | "The food was good." |
| "Reaching the moon was no ordinary task." | "Reaching the moon was a fantastic task." |
| "That was no big deal." | "That was nothing." |
| "Don't fail me now!" | "Help me!" |
| "She is not so unkind" | "She is kind" |
| "She was not a little cross." | "She was very cross." |
In some languages, some litotes are so idiomatic that they are not true figures of speech, but rather set phrases. For instance, in French, the sentence "Il faut qu'il aille" means "It's necessary that he go," while its opposite, "Il ne faut pas qu'il aille," means "it is necessary that he not go," which is much stronger than its English counterpart.
- Smyth, Herbert Weir (1920). Greek Grammar. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, p. 680. ISBN 0-674-36250-0.