Rhet. Obs. [ad. Gr. ταπείνωσις lowness (of style).] (See quots., and cf. DIMINUTION 2 b.) Hence † Tapinotically adv., by way of tapinosis.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, III. xvii. (Arb.), 195. If ye abase your thing or matter by ignorance or errour in the choise of your word, then is it by vicious maner of speach called Tapinosis.
c. 1600. Timon, II. iv. (1842), 35. Pseud. … They did obscure the sunne beames with wette clothis. Demeas. A tapinosis or diminution.
1652. Urquhart, Jewel, Wks. (1834), 292. Words diminishing the worth of a thing, tapinotically.
1657. J. Smith, Myst. Rhet., 57. In Meiosis, the speaker ought to take care that he fall not into that fault of speech, called Tapinosis, humility, that is when the dignity or majesty of a high matter is much defaced by the basenesse of a word; as to call the Ocean a stream, or the Thames a brook.
