15 July 2013

litotes

[lahy-tuh-teez, lit-uh-, lahy-toh-teez]

noun, plural li·to·tes. Rhetoric .
understatement, especially that in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary, as in ‘not bad at all’.
Compare hyperbole.

Origin:
1650–60; < Neo-Latin < Greek lītótēs orig., plainness, simplicity, derivative of lītós plain, small, meager

Today’s aphorism

Art must not be concentrated in dead shrines called museums. lt must be spread everywhere – on the streets, in the trams, factories, workshops, and in the workers’ homes.

Vladimir Mayakovsky – ‘Shrine or Factory?’ (1918); translation from Mikhail Anikst et al. (eds.) Soviet Commercial Design of the Twenties (New York: Abbeville Press, 1987) p. 15.

On this day

15 July 1099 – First Crusaders conquer Jerusalem.

15 July 1606 – birthday of Rembrandt, famous Dutch painter.

15 July 1815 – Napoleon surrenders and is eventually exiled on the island of St Helena