Not bad-which, like many phrases, sounds cool when you say it with an English accent-is an example of litotes, or an understatement used for effect. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Expression “Not Bad””
Hello, you have A Way with Words. My name is John. I’m from Dallas. Hi, John. Welcome to the show.
How can we help you? My wife, Sandy, and I, we have a bone to pick with a phrase we hear all the time. That phrase is, not bad. Let me give you a short perspective. We grew up in the 50s. Everything was optimistic as far as that time period. We’re optimistic as far as people. I hear it all of the time, or we hear it all of the time, as it relates to a response that you hear, whether it’s out in public, whether it’s buying product, whether it’s on the Weather Channel, it doesn’t matter. You hear it frequently.
And we’re curious as to how this crept into our language, because if something’s not bad, then it must not be good. Or the opposite of that, if it’s not bad, it’s good. And one of the things I thought about that really puts this into perspective is if a guy goes in and has a vasectomy and the doctor comes out to give him the results, the last thing he wants to hear is the procedure was not bad.
So I’m curious to understand from way with words how this crept into our language. And it just doesn’t fit from the standpoint of a response. And that’s really our question. Not bad. Not bad. Not a bad question.
I don’t know about creeping in. I mean, this whole notion… No, it’s moved in and made a home. Yeah, yeah. And it’s been around for hundreds of years. I mean, the technical term for this is lightetes. It comes from an ancient Greek word that means small or minor. And it’s used actually a whole lot in Beowulf back in the old days. You know, they would talk about Grendel the monster’s lair and say it was not a pleasant place. That kind of thing.
Right. So it’s a type of understatement? Yes. Okay. Just one of the kind of rhetorical devices that we have to add color to our speech then. Yeah. Understatement for effect. Okay. Right. And so when we’re saying not bad, it’s true that it’s not bad, but it doesn’t automatically mean exactly the opposite, which is great. Right. Okay. So it’s something above bad, but maybe not perfect or even very good. Yeah. Does that make sense, John?
Yeah, it does make sense. But we would just, our response is that we hear it so frequently and we interpret it as, well, if it’s not bad, then it must not be good. Or if it’s not bad, it must be good. So I was just curious to hear your feed on this.
But, John, you’re trying to apply logic to English, which is your first mistake. You apply logic to English and you just make more problems for yourself. English is, it’s got all this idiomatic stuff that happens in it and you just got to take it at face value. Take it how it’s intended. Don’t try to break it down into its component parts because it’s just not going to work. It’s kind of like you’ve got an automobile that runs, and then you take it apart to see how it works, and you can’t get it back together. That’s what you’re doing.
That’s a very good analogy. It’s not bad. I really thank you, and we thoroughly enjoy your program. Oh, it’s our pleasure, and we appreciate your calls. It’s a good one, John. Thank you very much. Thank you, John. Thank you. Thank you. Bye-bye.
I would like to muddy the waters just a little bit. Oh, please do, Grant. The British have an expression that we don’t really use here in North America in our English, and that is to say something is not half or not by half. Not by half. You might say, oh, yeah, he’s not much of a football player, and I’d be like, not by half, which means he definitely isn’t. So it’s kind of the opposite of that.
Yeah, a little more understatement. Yeah, a little more understatement even still. But it’s the other way, not understatement toward a value of good, but understatement toward a value of bad.
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