An oxymoron is a rhetorical device that uses an ostensible self-contradiction to illustrate a rhetorical point or to reveal a paradox. A more general meaning of "contradiction in terms" is recorded by the OED for 1902.. The term is first recorded as Latinized Greekoxymōrum, in Maurus Servius Honoratus ; it is derived from the Greek ὀξύς oksús "sharp, keen, pointed" and μωρός mōros "dull, stupid, foolish"; as it were, "sharp-dull", "keenly stupid", or "pointedly foolish". The word oxymoron is autological, i.e. it is itself an example of an oxymoron. The Greekcompound word ὀξύμωρον oksýmōron, which would correspond to the Latin formation, does not seem to appear in any known Ancient Greek works prior to the formation of the Latin term.
Types and examples
Oxymorons in the narrow sense are a rhetorical device used deliberately by the speaker, and intended to be understood as such by the listener. In a more extended sense, the term "oxymoron" has also been applied to inadvertent or incidental contradictions, as in the case of "dead metaphors". Lederer, in the spirit of "recreational linguistics", goes as far as to construct "logological oxymorons" such as reading the wordnookcomposed of "no" and "ok" or the surname Noyes as composed of "no" plus "yes", or far-fetched punning such as "divorce court", "U.S. Army Intelligence" or "press release". There are a number of single-word oxymorons built from "dependent morphemes", as with or sopho-more. The most common form of oxymoron involves an adjective–noun combination of two words, but they can also be devised in the meaning of sentences or phrases. One classic example of the use of oxymorons in English literature can be found in this example from Shakespeare'sRomeo and Juliet, where Romeo strings together thirteen in a row: Shakespeare heaps up many more oxymorons in Romeo and Juliet, in particular and uses them in other plays, e.g. "I must be cruel only to be kind", "fearful bravery", "good mischief", and in his sonnets, e.g. "tender churl", "gentle thief". Other examples from English-language literature include: "hateful good" "proud humility", "darkness visible", "beggarly riches", "", "expressive silence", "melancholy merriment", "faith unfaithful", "falsely true", "conventionally unconventional", "tortuous spontaneity" "delighted sorrow", "loyal treachery", "scalding coolness". In literary contexts, the author does not usually signal the use of an oxymoron, but in rhetorical usage, it has become common practice to advertise the use of an oxymoron explicitly to clarify the argument, as in: In this example, "Epicurean pessimist" would be recognized as an oxymoron in any case, as the core tenet of Epicureanism is equanimity. However, the explicit advertisement of the use of oxymorons opened up a sliding scale of less than obvious construction, ending in the "opinion oxymorons" such as "business ethics". J. R. R. Tolkien interpreted his own surname as derived from the Low German equivalent of dull-keen which would be a literal equivalent of Greek oxy-moron.
"Comical oxymoron"
"Comical oxymoron" is a term for the claim, for comical effect, that a certain phrase or expression is an oxymoron. The humour derives from implying that an assumption is so obvious as to be part of the lexicon. An example of such a "comical oxymoron" is "educational television": the humour derives entirely from the claim that it is an oxymoron by the implication that "television" is so trivial as to be inherently incompatible with "education". In a 2009 article called "Daredevil", Garry Wills accused William F. Buckley of popularising this trend, based on the success of the latter's claim that "an intelligent liberal is an oxymoron." Examples popularized by comedian George Carlin in 1975 include "military intelligence" and "business ethics". Similarly, the term "civil war" is sometimes jokingly referred to as an "oxymoron". Other examples include "honest politician", " Mexican food", "affordable caviar",, and "happily married", "Microsoft Works"
Antonym pairs
Listing of antonyms, such as "good and evil", "male and female", "great and small", etc., does not create oxymorons, as it is not implied that any given object has the two opposing properties simultaneously. In some languages, it is not necessary to place a conjunction like and between the two antonyms; such compounds are known as dvandvas. For example, in Chinese, compounds like 男女, 阴阳, 善恶 are used to indicate couples, ranges, or the trait that these are extremes of. The Italian pianoforte or fortepiano is an example from a Western language; the term is short for gravicembalo col piano e forte, as it were "harpiscord with a range of different volumes", implying that it is possible to play both soft and loud notes, not that the sound produced is somehow simultaneously "soft and loud".
