understatement

Look up understatement in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Understatement is a form of speech which contains an expression of less strength than what would be expected. This is not to be confused with euphemism, where a polite phrase is used in place of a harsher or more offensive expression.

Understatement is a staple of humour in English-speaking cultures, especially in British humour. For example, in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, a suburban dinner party is invaded by Death, who wears a long black cloak and carries a scythe. He is the Grim Reaper; the party is over; the guests must all go with him. "Well," says one party guest, "that's cast rather a gloom over the evening, hasn't it?" In another scene, an Army officer has just lost his leg. When asked how he feels, he looks down at his bloody stump and responds, "Stings a bit." The unofficial Google slogan, "Don't be evil", is another example of understatement, where one might expect something stronger, more akin to "always be good". The slogan is meant to be a humorous jab at its competitors.^[1]

Notable historic examples

Event: The well-known Victorian critique of Cleopatra's behaviour: "So unlike the home life of our own dear Queen!"^[2]

Event: In April 1951 650 British fighting men - soldiers and officers from the 1st Battalion, the Gloucestershire Regiment - were deployed on the most important crossing on the Imjin River to block the traditional invasion route to Seoul. The Chinese had sent an entire division - 10,000 men - to smash the isolated Glosters aside in a major offensive to take the whole Korean peninsula, and the small force was gradually surrounded and overwhelmed.

After two days fighting, an American, Maj-Gen Robert H Soule, asked the British brigadier, Thomas Brodie: "How are the Glosters doing?" The brigadier, schooled in British and thus British humor, replied: "A bit sticky, things are pretty sticky down there." To American ears, this did not sound too desperate, and so he ordered them to stand fast. Only 40 Glosters managed to escape. ^[3]

Event: After trekking more than 7000 miles through the African wilderness, previously almost completely unexplored by white Europeans, Henry Morton Stanley found David Livingstone, the only other white European in central Africa at that time. Stanley is credited with greeting Livingstone with the phrase "Dr Livingstone, I presume?".

Event: During the Kuala Lumpur to Perth leg of British Airways Flight 9 on 24 June 1982, volcanic ash causes all four engines of the Boeing 747 aircraft to fail. Although pressed for time as the aircraft rapidly lost altitude, Captain Eric Moody still managed to make an announcement to the passengers. Comment: "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress."^[4]

Event: A 2006 interview regarding current affairs in the Middle East with the Egyptian Foreign Minister. Comment by the Foreign Minister: "I think there's a problem between Shias and Sunnis". (BBC World Service, 23:50, Australian Eastern Standard Time, May 18, 2006)

See also

• Hyperbole
• Litotes
• Meiosis (figure of speech)
• Minimisation (psychology)

References

1. ^ Paul Buchheit on Gmail, AdSense and More
2. ^ Gold, Arthur and Fizdale, Robert. Sarah Bernhardt. Publisher: Gallimard (April 22, 1994) ISBN 2070731901 ISBN 978-2070731909 "After watching Sarah as Cleopatra, lasciviously entwined in her lover's arms, an elderly dowager was heard to say:' How unlike, how very unlike the home life of our own dear queen'."
3. ^ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1316777/The-day-650-Glosters-faced-10000-Chinese.html
4. ^ Job, Macarthur (1994). Air Disaster Volume 2. Aerospace Publications. pp. 96–107. ISBN 1875671196.