Oxymoron
An oxymoron is a figure of speech in which words with opposite, or almost opposite, meanings are used together to create a special effect.
Often oxymorons might appear at first to be nonsense but after closer consideration can be quite descriptive.
Think about this example:
- Deafening silence
If silence means there is no sound, how can it be deafening? It seems to make no sense, but it can be a very useful description of a particular situation.
Imagine a crowded meeting where someone asks the speaker a difficult question, but the speaker doesn’t answer – there is only silence. If we say that the silence was deafening, we might be saying that everyone was expecting an answer but there wasn’t one, that the speaker couldn’t answer or that the questioner had defeated the speaker. All that is neatly and descriptively conveyed in just four words: “the silence was deafening”.
Here are some more oxymorons. Perhaps you can get an idea of their meaning and effect:
- Living dead
- Open secret
- Bittersweet
- Genuine imitation
- Controlled chaos
- Seriously funny
- Virtual reality
- Working holiday
- Lead balloon
- Friendly fire
Sometimes people use the idea of oxymorons with the intention of being humorous – usually to make fun of someone or something. They might take a name slogan or a common expression and say something like:
- ‘Government organisation’ is an oxymoron. What they are saying is that government is disorganised.
Here are some other phrases that might be used in the same way. Perhaps you can see why:
- Express mail
- Happily married
- Airline food
- Civil war
- Bureaucratic efficiency
- Truthful politician
- Military intelligence
Just so you know – I’m not expressing any opinions here, just giving example of oxymorons!
Odd fact: “Oxymoron comes from two Greek words “oxys”, meaning sharp or keen and “moros” meaning dull or foolish. So perhaps oxymoron (meaning something like “sharp dull”) is, itself, an oxymoron.
There are many examples of oxymorons in English literature. Including:
- Sweet sorrow – William Shakespeare
- Fair is foul, and foul is fair – William Shakespeare
- Terrible beauty – WB Yates
- Exquisite agony – Alfred Lord Tennyson
- Falsely true – Alfred Lord Tennyson
- Dark light – John Milton
- Definite maybe – George Eliot
- Old news – George Orwell
- Conventionally unconventional – Henry James
The titles of many pop songs and albums are oxymorons. For example:
- The Sound of Silence – Simon and Garfunkel
- A Hard Day’s Night – The Beatles
- Definitely Maybe – Oasis
Posted by Graham
