λιτότης

Forms

λῑτότης (lītótēs) f (genitive λῑτότητος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek λιτός (lītós, “plain, frugal, simple”), with the suffix of abstract nouns -της (-tēs).^[1][2][3] Wiktionary derives the adjective from λίς (lī́s, “smooth”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Democritus, in the 5th century BC, is the first to use it, of plainness in adornment.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Greek it meant plainness and frugality: Theophrastus has it of simple garlands, Diodorus of a people who pursue a frugal life, and it is found in Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Strabo, Josephus and Plutarch.^[2][4][5] Cicero wrote λιτότης διαίτης, a frugal diet, into a Latin letter.^[2][4]

The rhetorical sense, an assertion made by understatement or by denying the opposite, is recorded in the Latin grammarians Servius and Donatus.^[2][4] English took it as litotes for the figure in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary.^[6]

Modern Greek revived it as λιτότητα (litótita), from the ancient accusative: frugality, plainness of style, the rhetorical figure, and economic austerity, the last sense a loan from English austerity recorded in 1942.^[7][8]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Democritus speaks of plainness in adornment.^[2]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus uses it of simple garlands.^[2][4]
• 1st century BC – Diodorus Siculus uses it of a frugal way of life, and Cicero writes it into a Latin letter.^[2][5]
• 1st century AD – Josephus uses it several times.^[5]
• Modern Greek – λιτότητα (litótita) means frugality and, after English austerity, economic austerity.^[7][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Plainness, simplicity; frugality of life.^[2][4][9]
2. (grammar, rhetoric) Litotes, an assertion made by understatement or by denying the contrary.^[2][4]

Related words

• λιτός (lītós)
• English litotes

Usage notes

Chæréphon gives καθαρειότης (kathareiótēs), neatness and elegance, as its opposite.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
4. ^ a b c d e f Montanari, Franco (2015), The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek, ed. Madeleine Goh and Chad Schroeder, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
6. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
8. ^ a b Ακαδημία Αθηνών (2014), Χρηστικό Λεξικό της Νεοελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Academy of Athens
9. ^ Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli
10. ^ Charbonnet, André (2025), Chæréphon, v4.7: supplement to Bailly from papyri, inscriptions and recent lexica