Antenantiosis: (an’-ten-an’-ti-os’-is): See litotes. (Deliberate understatement, especially when expressing a thought by denying its opposite. The Ad Herennium author suggests litotes as a means of expressing modesty [downplaying one’s accomplishments] in order to gain the audience’s favor [establishing ethos]).
So I swam across the English Channel in a business suit–it’s not like I walked across!
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Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).
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