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Tuesday January 12, 2010

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hyperbole [hy-PUHR-buh-lee]

noun

1. Extravagant exaggeration.

• The show's mission, he said, would not change: "To educate its audience and empower viewers to make better financial decisions." And it will still avoid hyperbole and sensation, he said, but it will focus "less on being the show of record in terms of what's happening."
  Elizabeth Jensen, "PBS Revamps 'Nightly Business' to Stress Analysis", New York Times, Jan 1, 2010
• The easiest way to escape the open bar/lavish dinner buffet/superstar DJ hyperbole of New Year's Eve? Head to this enormous subterranean pool hall, which is treating Dec. 31 like any other night. You'll pay for your own drinks, darts and pool, but you won't have to put up with cover charges or velvet ropes.
  "Free & Easy", The Washington Post, Dec 28, 2009
• This saying, divested of the language of hyperbole, means simply that the man in question is so obsessed with the greatness of his own personal value that he exaggerates the importance of everything that concerns him.
  D. Starke Poise: How to Attain It (1916)

Origin of the Word

Hyperbole, approximately 1529, derives from Latin hyperbole, from Greek hyperbole "exaggeration, extravagance," related to hyperballein "to throw over or beyond," from hyper- "beyond" + ballein "to throw."