What is the term used to describe the above, when we change the phrase to a negative plus opposite in order to be more indirect (to express criticism or generalisation?) E.g. She's always late/She's never early or He's very mean/ He's not over-generous.
Do we have a reference term for this in English?
(An Italian student of mine described this as "litote" in Italian but I can't find a translation of this word.)
Thanks if you can help!
He's good looking / He's not bad looking
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