the.com/oxymoron
Two words walk into a sentence and immediately start fighting, on purpose.
means A figure of speech that pairs two contradictory terms for deliberate, pointed effect, like 'deafening silence' or 'jumbo shrimp.'
from Greek, from oxys ('sharp') plus moros ('dull, foolish') — the word is itself an oxymoron, a sharp-dull thing, coined with the same wit it describes. It entered English in the 1600s, already self-aware.
- etymology
- greek for sharp-dull, itself an oxymoron
- classic example
- jumbo shrimp, military intelligence, awkward grace
- not a mistake
- intentional contradiction, unlike your ex's logic
- rhetoric cousin
- paradox is the sentence-length version