verbal irony

“That is sooooo ironic.” This sentence is used frequently — and usually incorrectly — in American English. Often the word “ironic” is misused to remark on a coincidence, such as “This is the third time today we’ve run into each other. How ironic.” It is also mistakenly used to describe something out of the ordinary or unusual: “Yesterday was a beautiful, warm day in November. It …

Ever trip over a sidewalk curb? Fall down a step? Bump into someone on the street? Push a door the wrong way? What’s your first verbal instinct in these moments of surprise? Is it to blurt out some onomatopoetic non-word (QZ.com refers to them quite accurately as “interjections, exclamations, non-lexical conversational sounds”). Well, whatever they are called, we know a few gut-reaction examples (that have …