wikipedia
was wotd|2006|May|5
English
Etymology
From L. #Latin|hyperbole < AGr. polytonic|á½�Ï�εÏ�βολή (huperbolÄ�) "excess, exaggeration < polytonic|á½�Ï�ÎÏ� (huper) "above" + polytonic|βάλλÏ� (ballÅ�) "I throw".
Pronunciation
IPA|/haɪ'p�:b�li/
audio|en-us-hyperbole.ogg|Audio (US)
Noun
en-noun
- uncountable extreme exaggeration or overstatement; especially as a literary or rhetorical device.
- uncountable deliberate exaggeration
- countable an instance or example of this technique
- countable obsolete a hyperbola
Usage notes
When used as a literary device, hyperbole is an exaggeration that, while not intended to be taken literally, still describes a situation or image that is at least feasible or possible. Exaggeration that is considered impossible is called adynaton.
:Examples: "I have been waiting for hours for the end of your 'short' coffee break." is a hyperbole while "I have been waiting for ages for the end of your 'short' coffee break." is an adynaton.
This distinction is not always observed, even in textbooks.
Quotations
timeline|
1600s=1602|
1800s=1837 1841 1843|
1900s=1910|
2000s=2001
1602 � w:William Shakespeare|William Shakespeare, s:Troilus and Cressida|Troilus and Cressida i 3
:...and when he speaks<br/>'Tis like a chime a-mending; with terms unsquar'd,<br/>Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropp'd,<br/>Would seem hyperboles.
1837 � w:Nathaniel Hawthorne|Nathaniel Hawthorne, s:Legends of the Province House|Legends of the Province House
:The great staircase, however, may be termed, without much hyperbole, a feature of grandeur and magnificence.
1841 � w:James Fenimore Cooper|James Fenimore Cooper, s:The Deerslayer|The Deerslayer, ch. 28
:"Nay - nay - good Sumach," interrupted Deerslayer, whose love of truth was too indomitable to listen to such hyperbole with patience.
1843 � w:Thomas Babington Macaulay|Thomas Babington Macaulay, s:The Gates of Somnauth|The Gates of Somnauth
:The honourable gentleman forces us to hear a good deal of this detestable rhetoric; and then he asks why, if the secretaries of the Nizam and the King of Oude use all these tropes and hyperboles, Lord Ellenborough should not indulge in the same sort of eloquence?
c.1910 � w:Theodore Roosevelt|Theodore Roosevelt, s:Productive Scholarship|Productive Scholarship
:Of course the hymn has come to us from somewhere else, but I do not know from where; and the average native of our village firmly believes that it is indigenous to our own soil�which it can not be, unless it deals in hyperbole, for the nearest approach to a river in our neighborhood is the village pond.
2001 - Tom Bentley, Daniel Stedman Jones, The Moral Universe
:The perennial problem, especially for the BBC, has been to reconcile the hyperbole-driven agenda of newspapers with the requirement of balance, which is crucial to the public service remit.
Antonyms
meiosis
Derived terms
hyperbolic
Related terms
hyperbola
Translations
trans-top|Rhetorical device
Czech: nadsázka f
Dutch: hyperbool
French: hyperbole#French|hyperbole f
German: Hyperbel f
Italian: iperbole f
trans-mid
Latin: hyperbole#Latin|hyperbole f
Russian: ���и�ование n
Spanish: hipérbole f
trans-bottom
French
Etymology
From L.|fr #Latin|hyperbole < AGr.|fr polytonic|á½�Ï�εÏ�βολή (huperbolÄ�) "excess, exaggeration < polytonic|á½�Ï�ÎÏ� (huper) "above" + polytonic|βάλλÏ� (ballÅ�) "I throw".
Pronunciation
IPA|/ip��b�l/
Noun
hyperbole f
- hyperbole#English|hyperbole
- hyperbola
Latin
Etymology
From AGr.|la polytonic|á½�Ï�εÏ�βολή (huperbolÄ�) "excess, exaggeration < polytonic|á½�Ï�ÎÏ� (huper) "above" + polytonic|βάλλÏ� (ballÅ�) "I throw".
Pronunciation
IPA|/h��p��rb�le�/
Noun
la-noun|hyperbol�|hyperboles#Latin|hyperbol�s|f|first
- exaggeration; #English|hyperbole
- inflection of|hyperbole#Latin|hyperbol�|abl|s
- inflection of|hyperbole#Latin|hyperbol�|voc|s
Inflection
ladecl1 italbrac|Greek pattern
la-decl-1st-Greek|hyperbol
category:Latin noun forms
fr:hyperbole
io:hyperbole
id:hyperbole
hu:hyperbole
ru:hyperbole
te:hyperbole
vi:hyperbole
tr:hyperbole
zh:hyperbole
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