litotes

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek λιτότης (lītótēs, “plainness, simplicity”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} from λιτός (lītós, “smooth, plain, simple; small, meagre”).^{[2][3][4][7][8]} The Shorter Oxford, the Oxford Dictionary of English, Hoad and Wiktionary bring it through Late Latin lītotēs,^{[9][10][7][1]} and Dictionary.com through New Latin.^[11] Etymonline adds that the Greek adjective, of style, meant simple and unadorned.^[3] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged relate it to Ancient Greek λεῖος (leîos, “smooth”),^[4][6] and Barnhart and the American Heritage Dictionary trace it to Proto-Indo-European *lei-;^[4][5] Etymonline gives the root as *(s)lei- (“slimy, sticky, slippery”), hence "smooth", the source of slime.^[3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Barnhart also refer it to lime.^[6][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A figure of speech in which something is affirmed by denying its opposite: Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates it to 1589,^[6] and the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English to the late 16th century.^[9][10] The OED's first quotation is from J. Smith's Mysterie of Rhetorique Unvail'd (1656),^[2] and Barnhart dates the word to 1657.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The term has stayed in rhetoric, where it names both the figure and an example of it.^[2][6] Hoad and Weekley illustrate it with "a citizen of no mean city", from the Acts of the Apostles,^[7][8] and Etymonline with "no laughing matter".^[3] Collins, Chambers and the Shorter Oxford describe it more broadly as understatement for effect,^[12][13][9] which the Shorter Oxford and Chambers also call meiosis;^[9][13] Merriam-Webster Unabridged sets it against hyperbole.^[6]

Timeline

• 1589 – a figure of speech that affirms something by denying its opposite.^[6] The OED's first quotation is from 1656,^[2] and Barnhart dates the word to 1657.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (rhetoric) Understatement in which something is affirmed by denying its opposite, as in "not a bad idea" for "a good idea".^{[6][12][2][13]}
2. An instance of this figure of speech.^[6][2]

Related words

• lime
• slime

Usage notes

The plural is the same as the singular, litotes.^[6][12]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b c The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers