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Hyperbole
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Hyperbole (pronounced /haɪˈpɝbəli/ or "hy-PER-buh-lee"; "HY-per-bowl" is a mispronunciation) is a figure of speech in which statements are exaggerated. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, and is not meant to be taken literally.
Hyperbole is used to create emphasis. It is often used in poetry and is a literary device as well as a referendum.
Some examples include:
- "He has a brain the size of a pea."
- "I could eat a horse."
- "I've heard that a million times."
- "She is one-hundred feet tall."
- "I nearly died laughing."
Antonyms to hyperbole include meiosis, litotes, and understatement.
In show business and in the political arena, hyperbole (known as hype or media hype) is the practice of spending money on public relations, or expending political commentary in an attempt to bolster public interest in (for example) a movie, television show, performing artist,[1] politician, or proposed public policy. Often the entertainment or political value of the thing being hyped is exaggerated. Consequently, hype (but not traditional, literate hyperbole) has a bad connotation.
In a similar tendency, it is difficult to distinguish where art and artists receive objective or hyperbolic praise, because of the subjective way that both art and artists are appreciated.
Derived from the Greek ὑπερβολή (literally 'overshooting' or 'excess'), it is a cognate of hyperbola.
Bathos is the opposite of a hyperbole. Bathos is the 'let down' after a hyperbole in a phrase.
The modern slang term hype, in its usage as meaning extravagant publicity, may be derived from the word hyperbole. An example of the use of this slang term is in the 1988 song "Don't Believe the Hype" by the hip hop group Public Enemy.
The word is also incorrectly pronounced as "HY-per-bowl" in the song These Words by British artist Natasha Bedingfield.
- ^ Austin, Thomas (2002). Hollywood, hype and audiences: selling and watching popular film in the 1990s. Manchester: Manchester University Press, p. 45. ISBN 0-7190-5775-2. “Even in an era well used to the mechanisms of film ‘hype' — aggressive marketing, engineered controversy, press sensationalism”