oxymoron

noun [ˌɑksɪˈmɔɹɑn]

pronunciation

Editorial IPA from CMUdict AA2 K S IY1 M AO1 R AA0 N (pipeline/ipa-en.mjs: ˌɑkˈsiˈmɔɹɑn with two primaries) aligned to Webster 1913 Ox`y*mo\"ron (primary on mo, secondary on Ox); confirm at review, open source

Oxymoron names a trope that pairs seemingly contrary labels (cruel kindness, living dead), next to paradox and irony, unlike bare logical contradiction.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Definitions

ling. / rhet. Rhetorical figure: labels of contrary force stand side by side in one phrase (cruel kindness, laborious idleness, living dead). Axis: apparent clash inside the trope, not paradox as a claim and not a bare logic fault.

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
hist. lex. Webster 1913 prints OXYMORON (stress Ox`y*mo\"ron) with cruel kindness and laborious idleness. Arct 1921: Oksymoron (OCR: do-woipnie-głupio; pracowite próżnowanie, zapał na zimno, wymowne milczenie). Skeat 1910: no OXYMORON card (ὀξύς under Oxygen). Brückner 1927: no card.

source
Editorial team; facts: Webster 1913 (OXYMORON Ox`y*mo\"ron; cruel kindness; laborious idleness); M. Arct 1921 (Oksymoron; OCR: do-woipnie-głupio); W. W. Skeat 1910 (no OXYMORON; ὀξύς under Oxygen); A. Brückner 1927 (no oksymoron), open source
hist. / ety. Build: through NL (Webster: NL., fr. Gr.) from Greek. First member: Gk. ὀξύς (Skeat under Oxygen: sharp, keen, acid). Second: Arct glosses ...-głupio (OCR: do-woipnie-głupio); Greek lemma awaits a primary page. Axis: clash in the trope.

source
Editorial team; facts: Webster 1913 (OXYMORON: NL., fr. Gr.); W. W. Skeat 1910 (Oxygen / Oxalis: Gk. ὀξύς sharp, keen, acid); M. Arct 1921 (Oksymoron; OCR: do-woipnie-głupio), open source
colloq. Casual speech may dump any clash under this tag or under bare irony. This card keeps one axis: a contrary-force pair inside one figure, neither a claim against the obvious nor a fault in reasoning.

source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Examples

Cruel kindness is textbook oxymoron (contrary labels in one phrase); a neighbour wrongly slotted paradox into the same drill.

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
The morning session drilled oxymoron; paradox notes covered claims against the obvious, and irony returned as a separate trope after lunch.

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Reading list: Webster 1913 for OXYMORON (Ox`y*mo\"ron), Arct 1921 for Oksymoron with examples, Skeat 1910 for ὀξύς under Oxygen (no OXYMORON card), Brückner 1927 (gap at oksymoron).

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Treating every oxymoron as looser paradox erased the contrary-pair-versus-claim split at once.

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Board order: oxymoron, paradox, irony, contradiction, so the contrary-pair trope stayed apart from the claim, from irony, and from a bare logic fault.

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Usage

Casual notes may brand any clash as oxymoron with no named axis. Seminar work peels layers: contrary-force pairs inside the trope (cruel kindness, living dead), paradox as foil, the border with irony, plus open-book lexicon notes. Webster keeps OXYMORON with stress Ox`y*mo\"ron. Arct indexes Oksymoron with examples. Skeat stays quiet at the headword yet keeps Gk. ὀξύς on the Oxygen page. Brückner offers no Polish card. Without those layers only a hollow slogan about contradiction remains.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Open-book record: the 1913 Webster shows the noun with primary stress on mo and keeps the examples cruel kindness and laborious idleness; the figure adds an epithet of contrary force. Arct 1921 carries Oksymoron (OCR: do-woipnie-głupio) with Polish examples. Skeat 1910 leaves OXYMORON out; under Oxygen / Oxalis he keeps Gk. ὀξύς (sharp, keen, acid). Brückner 1927 leaves oksymoron out. Facts here; derivation under etymology.

source

Editorial team; facts: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 (OXYMORON; Ox`y*mo\"ron); M. Arct 1921 (Oksymoron); W. W. Skeat 1910 (no OXYMORON; ὀξύς under Oxygen); A. Brückner 1927 (absent), open source

Scholarly English marks apparent clash inside a figure. Careful writers reject worksheets that treat every trope as paradox and reject glosses that never name the contrary pair. The oxymoron / paradox border remains debated in seminars. Chronology of the label stays blank until a primary page appears. Polish counterpart: oksymoron.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Classrooms revisit contrary-pair talk in tropes and set oxymoron against paradox, irony, rhetoric, and semantics. Field adjective: oxymoronic (CMUdict has oxymoron; oxymoronic absent). Polish oksymoron sits in SGJP. Already live: paradox, irony, metaphor, rhetoric, semantics, metonymy, synecdoche, synonym, antonym, polysemy. Without the contrary-pair axis the tag collapses.

source

Editorial team; facts: Webster 1913 (OXYMORON); CMUdict (oxymoron present; oxymoronic absent); SGJP / Morfeusz 2 (oksymoron present); M. Arct 1921 (Oksymoron), open source

Word forms

Scholarly countable or mass in notes: one oxymoron, many oxymorons (or mass oxymoron). Adjective in notes: oxymoronic (CMUdict: oxymoron present; oxymoronic absent).

forms in use

przypadek	forma
singular	oxymoron
plural	oxymorons
adjective	oxymoronic (CMUdict: oxymoron present; oxymoronic absent)

Word forms: Editorial team; facts: Webster 1913 (OXYMORON); CMUdict (oxymoron present; oxymoronic absent) · source

Collocations

rhetorical oxymoron

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
oxymoronic relation

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
oxymoron versus paradox

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
contrary pair in the trope

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
distinguish oxymoron from paradox

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Synonyms · Antonyms

Synonyms contrary-pair figure (loose descriptive neighbour; check scope at review), oxymoronic trope (approximation; check scope at review), oksymoron (Polish counterpart; SGJP present; check scope at review)

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Antonyms literal naming without a trope (contextual contrast; not a clean antonym of the label alone), paradox as a claim (contrast neighbour: clash with the obvious, not a word pair; check at review), tautology / agreeing labels (contrast: no contrary force; check scope at review)

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Etymology

The English noun joins a Greek first member ὀξύς to a second member glossed as foolish. Webster 1913 prints OXYMORON (NL., fr. Gr.) with stress Ox`y*mo\"ron. Skeat 1910 skips the OXYMORON headword; the Oxygen / Oxalis pages keep Gk. ὀξύς (sharp, keen, acid). Arct (9th ed., 1921) carries Oksymoron with OCR gloss do-woipnie-głupio and Polish examples. Brückner 1927 skips a Polish lemma. The Greek lemma of the second member (classically μωρός) awaits a primary page. We do not copy dictionary wording. Polish counterpart: oksymoron.

source

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 (OXYMORON: Ox`y*mo\"ron; NL., fr. Gr.; cruel kindness; laborious idleness), open source

also

W. W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed., Oxford 1910 (no OXYMORON; Oxygen / Oxalis: Gk. ὀξύς sharp, keen, acid), open source

also

M. Arct, Słownik wyrazów obcych, 9th ed., Warsaw 1921 (Oksymoron; OCR: do-woipnie-głupio; pracowite próżnowanie, zapał na zimno, wymowne milczenie), open source

also

A. Brückner, Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego, Kraków 1927 (no oksymoron), open source

Related words

oxymoronic , field adjective (CMUdict: oxymoron present; oxymoronic absent)
paradox , claim-against-the-obvious neighbour beside contrary-pair trope; EN pair already live
irony , trope neighbour; EN pair already live
metaphor , foil along the likeness axis; EN pair already live
rhetoric , domain of tropes; EN pair already live
semantics , sense and transfer neighbour; EN pair already live
metonymy , contiguity neighbour; EN pair already live
synecdoche , part-whole trope neighbour; EN pair already live
polysemy , several linked senses in one unit; EN pair already live
synonym , near-sense unit without a trope axis; EN pair already live
antonym , opposed-sense unit (in the lexicon, not inside one trope); EN pair already live
oksymoron , Polish counterpart (SGJP present; Arct: Oksymoron; Webster: OXYMORON)

Related entries

The same entry in Polish: oksymoron

Questions and answers

What does oxymoron mean?

It names a trope where contrary epithets sit in one phrase (cruel kindness, living dead). Paradox is a claim against the obvious. Irony is another trope. Logical contradiction is a fault, not a figure.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Where does the word oxymoron come from?

From Greek through NL (Webster: NL., fr. Gr.). Skeat 1910 keeps ὀξύς under Oxygen (sharp, keen, acid) and skips OXYMORON. Arct 1921 indexes Oksymoron with OCR gloss do-woipnie-głupio. Brückner 1927 stays quiet. Second Greek member awaits a primary page.

source

Editorial team; facts: Webster 1913 (OXYMORON; NL., fr. Gr.); W. W. Skeat 1910 (ὀξύς under Oxygen; no OXYMORON); M. Arct 1921 (Oksymoron); A. Brückner 1927 (absent), open source

How is oxymoron pronounced, and which forms belong with it?

Editorial /ˌɑksɪˈmɔɹɑn/ follows Webster primary stress on mo; CMUdict AA2 K S IY1 M AO1 R AA0 N yields ˌɑkˈsiˈmɔɹɑn with two primaries (pipeline/ipa-en.mjs). Forms: oxymoron, oxymorons, oxymoronic. Confirm at review.

source

Editorial team; facts: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary via pipeline/ipa-en.mjs (oxymoron AA2 K S IY1 M AO1 R AA0 N); Webster 1913 (OXYMORON Ox`y*mo\"ron), open source

How does oxymoron differ from paradox and irony, and does Polish oksymoron match?

Oxymoron: contrary word pair in the figure. Paradox: claim against the obvious. Irony: another trope. Polish oksymoron matches (SGJP present). Notes draw borders; casual speech blurs them.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)