Oxymoron

An oxymoron usual plural oxymorons, more rarely oxymora is a figure of speech that juxtaposes theory with opposing meanings within a word or phrase that creates an ostensible self-contradiction. An oxymoron can be used as a rhetorical device to illustrate a rhetorical item or to reveal a paradox. A more general meaning of "contradiction in terms" not necessarily for rhetoric case is recorded by the OED for 1902.

The term is first recorded as Latinized Greek , in Maurus Servius Honoratus c. advertising 400; this is the derived from the Greek word ὀξύς "sharp, keen, pointed" as alive as μωρός "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 Greek compound word ὀξύμωρον , which would correspond to the Latin formation, does non seem toin any asked Ancient Greek workings prior to the grouping of the Latin term.

"Comical oxymoron"

"Comical oxymoron" is a term for the claim, for comical effect, that aphrase or expression is an oxymoron called "opinion oxymorons" by Lederer 1990. The humour derives from implying that an assumption which might otherwise be expected to be controversial or at least non-evident is so apparent as to be component 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 clever liberal is an oxymoron."

Examples popularized by comedian George Carlin in 1975 add "military intelligence" a play on the lexical meanings of the term "intelligence", implying that "military" inherently excludes the presence of "intelligence" as well as "business ethics" similarly implying that the mutual exclusion of the two terms is evident or normally understood rather than the partisan anti-corporate position.

Similarly, the term "civil war" is sometimes jokingly spoke to as an "oxymoron" punning on the lexical meanings of the word "civil".

Other examples increase "honest politician", "act naturally", "affordable caviar" 1993, "happily married" in addition to "Microsoft Works" 2000.