Tapinosis vs Litotes - What's the difference?
tapinosis | litotes |
(rhetoric) A figure of speech whereby something is given less importance by the name given it than it merits.
(rhetoric) A figure of speech in which the speaker emphasizes the magnitude of a statement by denying its opposite; a figure of speech in which understatement is used with negation to express a positive attribute; a form of irony
{{examples-right, sense=figure of speech, width=60%, examples=* She's not the nicest person I know (to indicate meanness)
* He's not exactly a rocket scientist (to indicate lack of intelligence)
* Organizing these records is no small task (to indicate difficulty)
* Not bad (that is to say, good)}} (-)
In rhetoric terms the difference between tapinosis and litotes
is that tapinosis is a figure of speech whereby something is given less importance by the name given it than it merits while litotes is a figure of speech in which the speaker emphasizes the magnitude of a statement by denying its opposite; a figure of speech in which understatement is used with negation to express a positive attribute; a form of irony.tapinosis
English
Noun
(tapinoses)Synonyms
* (rhetoric) abbaser, meiosisReferences
*litotes
English
(wikipedia litotes)Noun
(-)* He's not exactly a rocket scientist (to indicate lack of intelligence)
* Organizing these records is no small task (to indicate difficulty)
* Not bad (that is to say, good)}} (-)
