Difference between revisions of "Hyperbole"

Revision as of 02:18, 23 May 2007

Hyperbole: exaggeration for emphasis or for rhetorical effect.

   *My vegetable love should grow
   Vaster than empires, and more slow;
   An hundred years should got to praise
   Thine eyes and on thine forehead gaze;
   Two hundred to adore each breast,
   But thirty thousand to the rest. Andrew Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress"

   *Da mi basia mille, deinde centum,
   Dein mille altera, dein secunda centum,
   Deinde usque altera mille, deinde centum. Catullus, to his.

http://www.uky.edu/AS/Classics/rhetoric.html#22

Hyperbole

pronounced: hy-PER-buh-lee Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred, Then another thousand, then a second hundred, Then still another thousand, then a hundred

 	Catullus 	 

Hyperbole is a figure of speech that uses an exaggerated or extravagant statement to create a strong emotional response. As a figure of speech it is not intended to be taken literally. Hyperbole is frequently used for humour. Examples of hyperbole are:

   * They ran like greased lightning.

   * He's got tons of money.

   * Her brain is the size of a pea.

   * He is older than the hills.

   * I will die if she asks me to dance.

   * She is as big as an elephant!

   * I'm so hungry I could eat a horse.

   * I have told you a million times not to lie!

http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/figures-hyperbole.htm