Antiphrasis

{{Short description|Rhetorical device}}

{{use dmy dates|date=June 2024}}

Antiphrasis is the rhetorical device of saying the opposite of what is actually meant in such a way that it is obvious what the true intention is.{{Cite book |last=Dupriez |first=Bernard Marie |title=A dictionary of literary devices: gradus, A-Z |date=1991 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-0-8020-2756-6 |location=Toronto |pages=49–50 |translator-last=Halsall |translator-first=Albert W.}}

Some authors treat and use antiphrasis just as irony, euphemism or litotes.{{Cite book |last=Merry |first=Bruce |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q-lr20SuvfIC&dq=Greek+word+antiphrasis&pg=PA20 |title=Encyclopedia of Modern Greek Literature |date=2004 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-313-30813-0 |language=en}}

When the antiphrasal use is very common, the word can become an auto-antonym,{{Cite news |last=Rubio Hancock |first=Jaime |date=28 August 2016 |title=19 autoantónimos: palabras que significan una cosa y la contraria |url=https://verne.elpais.com/verne/2016/08/23/articulo/1471965781_732292.html |access-date=7 May 2023 |work=Verne |publisher=Ediciones El País |language=es |quote=Como explica Fundéu, a veces son el resultado de los usos irónicos y en ocasiones, de las antífrasis,}} having opposite meanings depending on context.

For example, Spanish {{lang|es|dichoso}}{{Cite web |last=Prieto García-Seco |first=David |date=2021-05-28 |title=Rinconete. Lengua. «Huésped» o significar una cosa y la contraria |url=https://cvc.cervantes.es/el_rinconete/anteriores/mayo_21/28052021_01.htm |access-date=7 May 2023 |website=Centro Virtual Cervantes |language=es}} originally meant "fortunate, blissful" as in {{lang|es|tierra dichosa}}, "fortunate land", but it acquired the ironic and colloquial meaning of "infortunate, bothersome" as in {{lang|es|¡Dichosas moscas!}}, "Damned flies!".