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In rhetoric, litotes (,〔OED s.v.〕 or ) is a figure of speech wherein understatement is used to emphasize a point by stating a negative to further affirm a positive, often incorporating double negatives for effect.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=''Litotes'' )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】work=The Free Dictionary )〕 For example, "She's not bad looking" could be used to express that someone is gorgeous. Or it could convey that she's not particularly ugly, but also isn't particularly attractive. The degree of emphasis depends on the context in which it is used. For instance, the commonly used phrase "not bad" could indicate that something was either average or excellent.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=''litotes (figure of speech)'' )〕 Along the same lines, litotes can be used to diminish the harshness of an observation; "He isn't the cleanest person I know" could be used as a means of indicating that someone is a messy person.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=''litotes'' )〕 Litotes is a form of understatement, always deliberate and with the intention of emphasis.〔 p.680〕 However, the interpretation of negation may depend on context, including cultural context. In speech, it may also depend on intonation and emphasis; for example, the phrase "not bad" can be said in such a way as to mean anything from "mediocre" to "excellent". It can be used to soften harsher expressions, similar to euphemism. The use of litotes is common in English, Russian, German, Dutch, Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and French. It is a feature of Old English poetry and of the Icelandic sagas and is a means of much stoical restraint.〔''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (1984) Micropædia VI, p. 266. "Litotes".〕 The word litotes is of Greek origin, meaning "the property of being light (as opposed to heavy)", and is derived from the word ''litos'' meaning "plain, small or meager". George Orwell complained about overuse of the 'not un...' construction in his essay "Politics and the English Language". ==Biblical litotes== * "My word...it shall not return unto Me void," meaning "My word...will have meaning and be important" * "I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will make them honored, and they shall not be small," meaning "they shall be very many" and "they shall be very great" * "They do not profit this people at all," meaning "they lead these people astray" * “They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command," meaning "I have forbidden this atrocious practice" * "And they offered strange fire which he did not command" meaning "contrary to my express command" * "and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests" meaning "Moses has spoken of a tribe to be set apart as holy from the rest and Judah was not it" 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「litotes」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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