Oxymoron

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An oxymoron (plural oxymorons or, more rarely, oxymora) is a figure of speech that combines two normally contradictory terms. Oxymoron is a loanword from Greek oxy ("sharp") and moros ("dull"). Thus the word oxymoron is itself an oxymoron.

Oxymorons are a proper subset of the expressions called contradictions in terms. What distinguishes oxymorons from other paradoxes and contradictions is that they are used intentionally, for rhetorical effect, and the contradiction is only apparent, as the combination of terms provides a novel expression of some concept, such as "cruel to be kind".

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 oxymorons:

"And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true"

Oxymorons can also be wooden irons in that they are in violation of the Principle of contradiction which asserts that nothing can be thought if it contains contradictory characteristics, predicates, attributes, or qualities.

Popular oxymorons

In popular usage, the term oxymoron is sometimes used more loosely, in the sense of a simple contradiction in terms. Often, it is then applied to expressions which, unlike real oxymorons, are used in full earnest and without any sense of paradox by many speakers in everyday language.

Calling such an expression an oxymoron is sometimes done in order to disparage its use, by drawing attention to a perceived inherent contradiction and thus claiming it to be nonsensical. Often this kind of argument is used in domains of political or ideological dispute, or in order to criticize a perceived nonsensical use of technical terms by lay people who fail to understand their true meanings. Examples of expressions that are used without a sense of paradox by some but have been claimed to be "oxymorons" in this sense by critics include:

"With all deliberate speed" (i.e. "go quickly slowly")
Pretty ugly
Alone together
Deafening silence
Liberal conservative
Same difference
Jumbo shrimp
Expect the unexpected
Free Speech Zone
Random Order
Government Intelligence

Sometimes, the labeling of an otherwise non-paradox expression as a perceived oxymoron is made on the basis of substituting an alternative, non-intended meaning for the meaning normally intended in the context of the expression in question. For instance, in the expression Civil war, the term civil is normally intended to mean "between citizens of the same state". In this sense, the expression is neither paradox nor self-contradictory. However, if civil is construed as 'non-military' or 'reasonable and polite', the expression is a contradiction in terms (as per satirist Richard Armour in It All Started with Columbus, who said the American Civil War was fought politely). Such designations of alleged oxymorons are often made with a humorous purpose.

A more subtle rhetorical manoeuvre in designating an expression XY as an "oxymoron", often used for either humorous or polemical purposes, is to pick out a perceived or alleged property of objects of type Y, re-construe that property as if it were a defining criterion of Y, and then demonstrate that it is contradicted by X. For instance, to claim "honest politician" is an oxymoron implies politicians are dishonest.

Both the above strategies can be seen combined in an example like military intelligence. First, the term "intelligence" is re-construed as meaning not "information gathering" but "intellectual power"; then it is implied that military people are not intelligent. The Thrash Metal band Megadeth commented on the phrase in their highly acclaimed song, Hangar 18: "Military Intelligence, two words combined that can't make sense".

Use in humor

Oxymorons are most tellingly employed in injecting a sense of ironic, ostensibly unintended, humor. The effect is to confront the reader or the listener with a sense of ludicrousness so as to render the whole sentence and the idea absurd and funny. It should be remembered that this is a purely subjective line of thinking and presupposes that the reader or listener is already familiar with the intended humor. For instance, some oxymorons used in this manner to arouse humor include:

Government organization
Military intelligence
Christian science
Microsoft Works
Gomer Pyle, the Jim Nabors character, when he gets a look of inspiration on his face and says “SHAZAAM!” (In this case it is the TV viewer who is presupposed to be familiar with the intended humor in the context of the Andy Griffith TV show combined with the DC Comics character Captain Marvel) This example demonstrates the non-linguistic aspects of oxymoron humor.

Use in provoking thought

Thought-provoking oxymorons include:

Orphans of the Living - children in the foster-parent system.
"Poet in residence in absentia" - a title granted to a poet, at his own request, by a university.

Use in drama

Oxymorons are used in Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' when Romeo is describing to Benvolio how much he loves Rosaline:

Romeo. Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O anything of nothing first create,
A heavy lightness, serious vanity,
Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms,
Feather of lead…

Juliet also uses oxymorons after having found out about her cousins death at the hands of Romeo she says:

O serpent heart, hid with a flow'ring face!
Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical'
Dove-feathered raven,wolfish ravening lamb'
A damned saint, an honourable villain

References

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