Auxesis is a form of hyperbole, in which something is referred to by a term disproportionate to its importance for the very purpose of amplifying that thing's importance or gravity. Hype! is also the name of a documentary film about grunge music. ...
It can be contrasted with meiosis and litotes, which make deliberate use of understatement. Meiosis is a figure of speech which intentionally understates something or implies that it is less in significance, size, than it really is. ... In rhetoric, litotes is a figure of speech in which the speaker emphasizes the magnitude of a statement by denying its opposite. ...
auxesis, n.(awg-ZEE-siss)
Examples
A lawyer may refer to a scratch as a "wound" or "laceration".
A book may referred to as a "volume."
Referring to a film as a "drama" or an "epic", when the intent is to lend a sense of importance or majesty.
References
Corbett, Edward P.J. Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student. Oxford University Press, New York, 1971.
However, if anyone actually could write the book with this title, it would be Jonathan Barnes, whose keen eye for logic is matched by a rhetorical skill of which few logicians can boast.
Both virtues are needed, for without the aid of considerable rhetorical elaboration (i.e., auxesis) this book would have been impossibly short.
Barnes explains the genesis in his preface: it began as a seminar paper, became a lecture which turned into an article; thence a monograph.
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