Oxymoron

This article is about the contradiction in terms. For the punk band, see Oxymoron (band).

An oxymoron (plural oxymora (Greek plural) or, more often, oxymorons) (from Greek ὀξύμωρον, "sharply dull") is a figure of speech that combines normally contradictory terms. They appear in a range of contexts, from inadvertent errors such as extremely average, to deliberate puns like same difference, to literary oxymorons that have been carefully crafted to reveal a paradox.

The most common form of oxymoron involves an adjective-noun combination. For example, the following line from Tennyson's Idylls of the King contains two oxymora:

"And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true."

Less often seen is noun-verb combinations such as the line

"The silence whistles"

from Nathan Alterman's Summer Night.

Some more examples of the more commonly seen "adjective-noun" oxymoron are shown below:

Dark Sunshine, Happy Depression, Amazing Dullness, Dynamic Equilibrium, Cold Sun

Another example of their use is shown to great effect in song lyrics, such as the term "Wonderful Misery" used by progressive metal band Dream Theater on their song "A Nightmare to Remember" from their album Black Clouds and Silver Linings.

Etymology

From 5th century Latin "oxymoron", from Ancient Greek "ὀξύς" (oxus, sharp) + "μωρός" (mōros, dull) Greek "ὀξύμωρον" (oxumōron) is not found in the extant Greek sources, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

Inadvertent oxymorons

Oxymorons are sometimes inadvertently created by errors or sloppiness in conversation; common examples include extremely average, objective opinion, and original copy.

In some cases an inadvertent oxymoron ends up being widely adopted as the name for some concept, in which case it may cease to be recognised as an oxymoron. Cases where this has occurred include bittersweet, virtual reality, and living dead.

Oxymorons as puns

A great many oxymorons have been popularised in vernacular speech. Unlike literary oxymorons, many of these are not intended to construct a paradox; they are simply puns. Examples include controlled chaos, open secret, organized mess, jumbo shrimp, alone in a crowd and accidentally on purpose.

There are also many examples where terms that are superficially contradictory are juxtaposed in such a way that there is no contradiction. Examples include same difference, pretty ugly (in which context pretty means rather, not attractive) and hot ice (hot and ice mean "stolen" and "diamonds", respectively, in criminal argot). Whether or not these may legitimately be called oxymorons is debatable.

Oxymorons as paradoxes

Often a writer will use an oxymoron in order to deliberately call attention to a contradiction. For example Wilfred Owen, in his poem The Send-off refers to soldiers leaving for the front line, who "lined the train with faces grimly gay." In this case the oxymoron grimly gay highlights the contradiction between how the soldiers feel and how they act: though putting on a brave face and acting gay, they actually feel grim.

One case where many oxymorons are used together can be found in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, where Romeo declares

"O heavy lightness! Serious vanity!
Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!"

Some paradoxical oxymorons that become clichés:

• Deafening silence
• Sweet sorrow
• Forward retreat
• Silent Scream
• Quiet Riot
• Serious Joke
• Clean Coal

Terms falsely labeled as oxymorons for rhetorical effect

Although a true oxymoron is “something that is surprisingly true, a paradox”, modern usage has brought a common misunderstanding as being near synonymous with a contradiction. The introduction of this usage, the opposite of its true meaning, has been credited to William F. Buckley

Sometimes a pair of terms is claimed to be an oxymoron by those who hold the opinion that the two are mutually exclusive. That is, although there is no inherent contradiction between the terms, the speaker expresses the opinion that the two terms imply properties or characteristics that cannot occur together.

Such claims may be made purely for humorous effect; many examples, such as military intelligence, were popularized by comedian George Carlin. Another example is the term civil war, which is not an oxymoron, but can be claimed to be so for humorous effect, if civil is construed as meaning 'polite' rather than 'between citizens of the same state'.

Alternatively, such claims may reflect a genuinely held opinion or ideological position. Well-known examples include claims made against "government worker","educational television", and "gay marriage."

Taxonomy

Richard Lederer assembled a taxonomy of oxymorons in an article in Word Ways in 1990, running from single-word oxymorons such as "pianoforte" (literally, "soft-loud") through "doublespeak oxymora" (deliberately intended to confuse) and "opinion oxymora" (editorial opinions designed to provoke a laugh). In general, oxymorons can be divided into expression that were deliberately crafted to be contradictory, such as the Tennyson quote above, and those phrases that inadvertently or incidentally contain a contradiction (often as a result of a punning use of one or both words).

See also

• Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
• Contradictio in terminis
• Paradox
• Performative contradiction
• Self refuting idea
• Sideroxylon (oxymoron)
• Wooden iron

References

• Smyth, Herbert Weir (1920). Greek Grammar. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. p. 680. ISBN 0-674-36250-0.

Further reading

• Shen, Yeshayahu (1987). "On the structure and understanding of poetic oxymoron". Poetics Today. 8 (1): 105–122.