LITOTES

March 15, 2010

Litotes
\’li-te-‘tez\ n : understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary*

I have seen many complex words and definitions during the course of this project, however I must admit this particular definition had me shaking my head, befuddled. For people who do not like exaggeration, expressing themselves through the use of litotes could definitely be deemed appropriate.
I associate litotes with an inability or unwillingness to show emotion or be overly expressive. After working an entire Saturday after having no sleep, when asked by my mother if I was ok, I responded by saying I wasn’t as awake as I would have liked when I wanted to scream and say that I was beyond exhausted.
When it’s that inevitable time of the month and I am the last person humanity wants to interact with, I characterize my volatile behavior by saying that I’m not in the best mood today when deep inside I want to utter expletives and rip a person’s head off for looking at me.
Litotes are those weird forms of expressions primarily found and utilized in the English language. It’s pretty interesting…(by that I mean It’s totally wicked cool!)

*letter “e” is upside down creating sound of “uh”