Definition: (1) To belittle, use a degrading epithet or nickname, often through a trope of one word. A concise form of invective.
(2) A kind of understatement that dismisses or belittles, especially by using terms that make something seem less significant than it really is or ought to be. Plural meioses; adjectival form, meiotic.
Etymology:
From the Greek, "diminish"
Examples and Observations:
- "Meiosis, often achieved through a trope of one word, may range from bitter scorn to light derision."
(Sister Miriam Joseph, Shakespeare's Use of the Arts of Language, 1947)
- "The unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable."
(Oscar Wilde on fox hunting)
- "rhymester" for poet
- "grease monkey" for mechanic
- "shrink" for psychiatrist
- "slasher" for surgeon
- "pecker checker" for urologist
- "ambulance chaser" for personal injury lawyer
- "short-order chef" for morgue worker
- "treehugger" for "environmentalist"
- King Arthur: "The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite held aloft excaliber from the bosom of the water."
Peasant: "Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Power derives from the masses not from some farcical aquatic ceremony."
King Arthur: "Be quiet!"
Peasant: "You can't expect to wield supreme power because some watery tart threw a sword at you."
King Arthur: "Shut up!"
Peasant: "If I went around saying I was an emperor because some moistened bink had lobbed a scimitar at me . . .."
(Monty Python and the Holy Grail)
Pronunciation: MI-o-sis
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