At 09:39 AM 9/30/01 -0400, Ludwik Kowalski asked about "oxymoron".
The word "oxymoron" means "clever foolishness".
Genuine oxymorons are rare. Very rare.
They should not be confused with ordinary stupid foolishness.
It would be better to call something
-- a contradiction in terms.
-- self-contradictory.
-- preposterous.
-- wishful thinking.
... rather than calling it an oxymoron, unless it is truly clever and
epigrammatic enough to qualify as a genuine oxymoron.
For example: A merchant who feels obliged to refer to his establishment as
"your friendly neighborhood ____ store" or "the quality ____ dealer" is all
too often engaged in wishful thinking, resulting in a contradiction in
terms. Methinks he doth protest too much.
Also: "Preposterous" is a useful word. It means, literally, putting the
posterior in front. You may have heard other, less-refined ways of
expressing the same idea :-).
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Ludwik remarked that "oxymoron" exemplified itself. It does, in the sense
that it is seemingly contradictory but gets the point across.
It is amusing to think of other words that exemplify themselves. Examples
include:
-- noun
-- newspeak
-- pentasyllabic
At 10:11 AM 9/30/01 -0700, Bernard Cleyet wrote:
Like sophomore.
Or rather, the exactly-opposite mirror image of "sophomore".
Structurally, the two words are identical: one root meaning wise or
clever, and one root meaning foolish. But an oxymoron is, by definition,
cleverer than it appears. Sophomores are, by definition, not as clever as
they think they are.
At 01:58 PM 9/30/01 -0400, Ludwik Kowalski asked about "sophomore":