"That's an understatement," I said to my friend Mary as we worked on the last unit of the school year.
"Well, it's not hyperbole," she agreed.
"What's the opposite of hyperbole?" I wondered.
"Understatement," Mary answered.
"Or something with 'hypo'," Heidi suggested as she entered my classroom ready to leave for the day.
"Hy-po-bo-le?" I said, and then laughed uproariously, because it is such a silly sounding word. (Say it! You'll see.)
"Oh the fun we have when English teachers get together," Mary proclaimed.
Later, I decided to do a little research and see if there actually was any such thing as hypobole. Indeed there is, but it is not the opposite of hyperbole. No, the term refers to some sort of rhetorical device where one sets up a string of counterarguments just to knock 'em down. That hypobole does sound kind of fun.
But in fact, the antonym of hyperbole is actually 'litotes' (pronounced lid'-uh-teez), and most often is an understatement phrased in terms of what something is not.
For example, "Well, it's not hyperbole."
Well! I'm no expert, but it seems like Mary nailed it.
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