Meiosis (figure of speech)

In rhetoric, meiosis is a euphemistic figure of speech that intentionally understates something or implies that it is lesser in significance or size than it really is. Meiosis is the opposite of auxesis, and also sometimes used as a synonym for litotes. The term is derived from the Greek μειόω (“to make smaller”, "to diminish").

Examples

• "The Troubles" as a name for decades of violence in Northern Ireland.
• "The Pond" for the Atlantic Ocean ("across the pond").
• "The Recent Unpleasantness," used in the southern United States as an idiom to refer to the American Civil War and its aftermath.
• "Intolerable meiosis!" comments a character in William Golding's Fire Down Below as their ship encounters an iceberg after another character comments, "We are privileged. How many people have seen anything like this?".
• The Black Knight scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail ("It's just a flesh wound!")

See also

• Figure of speech
• Paradiastole
• Euphemism
• Minimisation

References

• Burton, Gideon O.. "Meiosis". Silva Rhetoricae. http://rhetoric.byu.edu/figures/M/meiosis.htm. Retrieved 2006-12-24.