oxymoron
[ok-si-mawr-on, -mohr-]
- a figure of speech by which a locution produces an incongruous, seemingly self-contradictory effect, as in “cruel kindness” or “to make haste slowly.”
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Origin of oxymoron
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
allegory, allusion, analogy, anticlimax, antithesis, bathos, comparison, conceit, device, euphemism, euphuism, exaggeration, expression, flourish, flower, hyperbole, image, imagery, irony, metaphoroxymoron
- rhetoric an epigrammatic effect, by which contradictory terms are used in conjunctionliving death; fiend angelical
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Word Origin
C17: via New Latin from Greek oxumōron, from oxus sharp + mōros stupid
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
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Word Origin and History for oxymoron
n.
1650s, from Greek oxymoron, noun use of neuter of oxymoros (adj.) "pointedly foolish," from oxys "sharp" (see acrid) + moros "stupid" (see moron). Rhetorical figure by which contradictory terms are conjoined so as to give point to the statement or expression; the word itself is an illustration of the thing. Now often used loosely to mean "contradiction in terms." Related: Oxymoronic.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
oxymoron
[(ok-see-mawr-on)]
A rhetorical device in which two seemingly contradictory words are used together for effect: “She is just a poor little rich girl.”
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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
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