Meiosis (figure of speech)

Examples

• " peculiar institution", for slavery and its economic ramifications in the American South.
• "The Recent Unpleasantness", used in the 19th century in the southern United States as an idiom to refer to the American Civil War and its aftermath.
• "The Emergency", a term used in the Republic of Ireland for the conflict that the rest of the world called the Second World War.
• In the Jewel Voice Broadcast, the Japanese emperor Hirohito said that "the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage", only a week after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
• "The Troubles", a name for decades of violence in Northern Ireland.

• "The Pond", for the Atlantic Ocean. Similarly, "The Ditch" for the Tasman Sea, between Australia and New Zealand.
• In The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield says "It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain."
• "Intolerable meiosis!" comments a character in William Golding's Fire Down Below as their ship encounters an iceberg after another character comments, "We are privileged. How many people have seen anything like this?"