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| Word of the Day - for Toastmasters everywhere
Wednesday 10th March 2010
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Understatement for effect, meiosis; more strictly a figure of speech, in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary.
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All the ingredients for life are present in a dying star. "It just takes a little time" said Neill, as neat a litotes as I have heard, as the universe's theme tune, The Blue Danube, struck up.
Nancy Banks- Smith, The Guardian, 23 July 2001. Guardian |
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The British Medical Association, killjoy that it is, counters that "funding should be directed to activities that do not present the risk of deliberate brain injury to young people". I detect a bit of litotes, there - I bet when they had their meeting about what kind of press release to send out, the majority were in favour of a statement like "You absolute lunatics! What on earth are you playing at, teaching youngsters to brain each other?", until a bright spark suggested understatement, for comic effect.
Zoe Williams, The Guardian, 28 September 2004. Guardian |
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Peter Reid, the Sunderland manager, a man adept in the use of litotes, said: "It wasn’t the best game of pure football in the world."
Simon Barnes, The Times, 15 January 2001.
The Times |
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| "Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them" - Charles Simic
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