Gorgias's Weblog

Abbaser

September 13, 2008 · Leave a Comment

Abbaser: [George] Puttenham’s English term for tapinosis. Also equivalent to meiosis: reference to something with a name disproportionately lesser than its nature (a kind of litotes: deliberate understatement, especially when expressing a thought by denying its opposite).

New York–a little town on a little island in a river.

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Definitions courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu). Bracketed text added by Gorgias.

Categories: Gorgias's Weblog · The Daily Trope · abbaser · elocutio · figures of speech · litotes · meiosis · rhetoric · style · tapinosis

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