Exaggeration using an understatement

Question

Usually the word exaggerate refers to an overstatement of a situation. E.g.

It's a furnace in here!

Is an exaggeration when the room is 78 degrees F.

But if I wanted the opposite of such an exaggeration (that is to say, an understatement instead of an overstatement), what would you call it instead of an exaggeration? For example, if there is a heat wave outside and over 110 degrees F, then

It's a little warm today.

Would be a gross understatement, but it would be wrong to call it an exaggeration.

"underexaggeration" is a word I've heard, but doesn't seem to be recognized anywhere official — Esther, Jul 11 '22 at 20:30
What aspect of this concept is not already covered by "understatement"? — dubious, Jul 11 '22 at 20:39
@dubious An exaggeration is deliberate. An understatement or overstatement is not necessarily. Which is why I'm looking for an analog to exaggerate. — uberhaxed, Jul 11 '22 at 20:44
@Jim sarcasm is too broad and doesn't describe the situation without a lot of context because it's too broad. If I said that Bob was exaggerating the weather, then you can probably guess the conversation without much context. If you said that Bob was sarcastic about the weather, there is not enough information to guess what was said. — uberhaxed, Jul 11 '22 at 20:47
I intended to find out whether that was what you were looking for before I wasted effort. So… is it what you were looking for? — Jim, Jul 11 '22 at 20:51
What @dubious says. Saying "It's a little warm today" converts it to a deliberate understatement, whereas "It's warm today" is simply a mild way of saying it. — Weather Vane, Jul 11 '22 at 20:53
@Weathervane Yes, a "deliberate overstatement" is an exaggeration. So what word fulfills a "deliberate understatement"? I.e. the question in the title and single word request. — uberhaxed, Jul 11 '22 at 20:56
Understatement can be used for different purposes. In this case, it is used for humor (comedic effect). You can call it a "comedic understatement" to be more specific. — ermanen, Jul 11 '22 at 21:06
@livresque Indeed it does, this may be closed as a duplicate. — uberhaxed, Jul 11 '22 at 22:41

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 11 '22 at 21:33

2

If you're looking for the formal term from rhetoric, try meiosis.

From Wikipedia:

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 is often compared to litotes. The term is derived from the Greek μειόω (“to make smaller”, "to diminish").

answered Jul 11 '22 at 21:33

Robusto

151,571

This does look like what I'm looking for, but I will give others time to answer before making the judgement that this is the best answer. – uberhaxed Jul 11 '22 at 22:19

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 11 '22 at 21:45

The best term remains understatement:

Merriam Webster
understatement
a statement that represents something as smaller or less intense, or less important than it really is.

Hence we have the Monty Python sketch that includes the Army officer who has just lost his leg. When asked how he feels, he looks down at his bloody stump and responds, "Stings a bit."

So, "it's a little warm", when the temperature is 115 F, is an understatement of the true temperature.

If you choose to go even further and interpret "It's a little warm" as a negative statement such as "it's not really hot", the usage might be described as litotes.

Dictionary.com
litotes
understatement, especially that in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary, as in “not bad at all.”

This definition fits your example but Cambridge emphasises that litotes is usually (although not always - see the Dictionary.com definition) used with negatives intended as positives.

Cambridge
litotes
the use of a negative statement in order to emphasize a positive meaning, for example "a not inconsiderable amount of money (= a considerable amount of money)"

Exaggeration using an understatement

2 Answers2