Litotes
Recently I was pondering the oddness of using the phrase “not bad” to indirectly say “good”. I was sure that there was a name for this type of language but I couldn’t remember it. So I looked up the phrase “not bad”, which led me to a Stack Exchange comment 🔗 with the advice to “Read up on litotes”.
Litotes, according to Merriam-Webster 🔗, is:
understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary (as in “not a bad singer” or “not unhappy”)
Going forward I hope this word won’t not be unhard to remember.