Litotes

The litotes (Greek λιτότης, litotes, " thrift, restraint, simplicity, simplicity ") is a figure of style, in which a state of affairs by the negation ( negation ) is treated of its opposite, to achieve through understatement or mitigate the highlighting of a term, or the circumvention of exaggeration or laudatory statement by the negation of the contrary or by double negation expresses a cautious assertion and thereby causes an (often ironical ) highlighting of what is said or a rhetorical trope of deliberate understatement. Litotes structure also has the gain of a diminutive ( the size implicitly negated). As Litotes in the broadest sense, polite expressions of " understatement " can understand. As the irony is the Litotes an indirect form of highlighting, so functionally related to the hyperbola.

Examples

Some possible forms of litotes are:

• Mitigation ("I 'm annoyed about it not a little. " )
• Subsequent underscore ( "There was no turning back, not bad !")
• Weaker concession ( " This does not mean that he had completely wrong." )
• Double negation to express gain ( " He did not speak without joke about it." )
• Diminutive ( a pretty penny, a passable house)
• " Understatement " (my little one, you come times on an hour ago)

A Latin example non ignorare is for " know " (from non, " not ", and ignorare, " ignore ").

Quote

" A litotes is a figure of style, that is, it is, metaphorically speaking. They say > black < to better > < to say white. He is not ugly, that is, in fact, that I find it beautiful. "