Mar15

‘i never said most of the things i said.’ – yogi berra

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why is ‘oxymoron’ an oxymoron?”

Much like “deafening silence” and “jumbo shrimp,” the word “oxymoron” is a bit of an oxymoron in itself.

The word “oxymoron” may sound like an insult or maybe a cleaning product, but it’s neither. It’s the name for a figure of speech where contradictory terms appear together (e.g., “minor crisis,” “small crowd,” “bittersweet”). But the word “oxymoron” also falls into that category, as it’s derived from ancient Greek words that contradict each other.

“Oxymoron” comes from the Greek oxumōron,which combines oxus (meaning “sharp”) and mōros (“foolish”). Calling something both sharp and foolish comes across as, well, oxymoronic, thus making the word “oxymoron” a perfect example of what it describes.

But being a walking contradiction never stopped the word from becoming a part of our collective vernacular. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it became popular in the mid-17th century, with people using it to rhetorically emphasize blatantly contradictory phrases. While you may be tempted to call someone an oxymoron as a personal descriptor, doing so wouldn’t be by the book. Instead, the term is best reserved for incongruous sets of words.

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just when i thought I had a handle on this…..

what is your favorite oxymoron?

my personal favorite is:

‘definite maybe.’

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‘i’m not going to say i told you so, but i did.’

-nouriel roubini

 

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Source credits: Bennett Kleinman, SergioVas/Shutterstock

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58 responses »

  20. this is surely one of my best liked posts! such a terrific description of a ‘foreign word’ for this Swiss. it’s a word i’d love to employ frequently because it’s such a ‘songish’ one but then my English is too ‘high brow’ for most of my fellow humans around here…. apart from HH i don’t know anyone who’d understand it. so i’m now looking into a choice for a Swiss word to explain an oxymoron…

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