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The first known mention of litotes is in a letter from Cicero in 55 BC . Cicero uses the word to mean simplicity (or frugality) of life. The meaning and the function of the word changed from 'simple' to the idea of understatement that involves double negatives, a way to state things simply. Old Norse had several types of litotes. These points ...
Also apophthegm. A terse, pithy saying, akin to a proverb, maxim, or aphorism. aposiopesis A rhetorical device in which speech is broken off abruptly and the sentence is left unfinished. apostrophe A figure of speech in which a speaker breaks off from addressing the audience (e.g., in a play) and directs speech to a third party such as an opposing litigant or some other individual, sometimes ...
Paradeigma – argument created by a list of examples that leads to a probable generalized idea. Paradiastole – redescription, usually in a better light. Paradox – an apparently absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition. Paralipsis – a form of apophasis when a rhetor introduces a subject by denying it should be discussed. To ...
When the antiphrasal use is very common, the word can become an auto-antonym, [3] having opposite meanings depending on context. For example, Spanish dichoso [ 4 ] originally meant "fortunate, blissful" as in tierra dichosa , "fortunate land", but it acquired the ironic and colloquial meaning of "infortunate, bothersome" as in ¡Dichosas moscas ...
"The use of litotes is common in English, Russian, German, Dutch, Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and French." This list makes litotes sound exclusive to these languages, or at least marks these languages as somehow more likely to use litotes. It's a very simple construction, most languages in the world probably use it in some form or another.
Tropes (from Greek trepein, 'to turn') change the general meaning of words. An example of a trope is irony, which is the use of words to convey the opposite of their usual meaning ("For Brutus is an honorable man; / So are they all, all honorable men"). During the Renaissance, scholars meticulously enumerated and classified figures of speech.
The name is derived from medieval Latin word aequator, in the phrase circulus aequator diei et noctis, meaning 'circle equalizing day and night', from the Latin word aequare meaning 'make equal'. equilateral: æquilateral: aequilateral (BrE - obsolete) from Latin "aequus" equinox: æquinox: aequinox (BrE - obsolete) from Latin "aequi + nocta ...
This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources. Novellas are works of prose fiction longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. Several novellas have been recognized as among the best examples of the literary form. Publishers and literary award societies typically consider a ...