Definition:
A figure of speech in which incongruous or contradictory terms appear side by side; a compressed paradox. Adjective: oxymoronic.
Etymology:
From the Greek, "sharp-dull"Examples & Observations:
- "O brawling love! O loving hate! . . .
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
This love feel I, that feel no love in this."
(William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet) - "A yawn may be defined as a silent yell."
(G.K. Chesterton) - "O miserable abundance, O beggarly riches!"
(John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions) - "That building is a little bit big and pretty ugly."
(James Thurber) - "'I want to move with all deliberate haste,' said President-elect Barack Obama at his first, brief press conference after his election, 'but I emphasize "deliberate" as well as "haste."'
"It’s not easy to be both deliberate and hasty at the same time unless you are consciously embracing an oxymoron--from the Greek word meaning 'pointedly foolish'--and it is a jarring juxtaposition of contradictory words like 'cruel kindness' and 'thunderous silence.'"
(William Safire, "Frugalista," The New York Times, November 21, 2008) - "The phrase 'domestic cat' is an oxymoron."
(George Will) - "A log palace is an architectural as well as a verbal oxymoron; so is a short skyscraper, or an urban villa."
(J. F. O'Gorman and Dennis E. McGrath, ABC of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998) - the expressions "act naturally," "original copy," "found missing," "alone together," "peace force," "definite possibility," "terribly pleased," "real phony," "ill health," "turn up missing," "jumbo shrimp," "alone together," "loose tights," "small crowd," and "clearly misunderstood"
Pronunciation: ox-see-MOR-on
