{"id":2054,"date":"2015-11-10T12:44:06","date_gmt":"2015-11-10T18:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=2054"},"modified":"2023-07-13T11:49:15","modified_gmt":"2023-07-13T16:49:15","slug":"the-oxymoron-simply-complicated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/definitions\/the-oxymoron-simply-complicated\/","title":{"rendered":"The Oxymoron: Simply Complicated"},"content":{"rendered":"

An oxymoron<\/em> is a turn of phrase that contains a contradiction or paradox. Some familiar examples: definite maybe<\/em>, same difference<\/em>, poor little rich girl<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The word oxymoron<\/em> derives from Greek: oxus<\/em> means \u201csharp; quick,\u201d and moros<\/em> means \u201cdull; foolish.\u201d Sharply foolish? Eureka! Oxymoron<\/em> is itself an oxymoron.<\/p>\n

The plural is traditionally oxymora<\/em>, but some now consider oxymorons<\/em> acceptable also.<\/p>\n

Oxymora have been around for centuries but have never gone out of date. Shakespeare\u2019s plays and poems are teeming with them: \u201cvirtuous lie,\u201d \u201ctragical mirth,\u201d \u201cunpriz\u2019d precious maid.\u201d \u201cI must be cruel only to be kind,\u201d says Hamlet. \u201cParting is such sweet sorrow,\u201d says Juliet to Romeo.<\/p>\n

What are we to make of this line from Macbeth<\/em>: \u201cFair is foul, and foul is fair\u201d? Like any good oxymoron, this one jolts the reader. But when we consider that the words are spoken in tandem by three malevolent she-devils, the paradox makes sense.<\/p>\n

Romantic poets like John Keats (\u201cdelicious diligent indolence\u201d) and Lord Byron (\u201cmelancholy merriment\u201d) were devising oxymora two centuries after Shakespeare. In the twentieth century, this durable figure of speech was embraced by a wide range of artists, from Ernest Hemingway (\u201cyoung and lovely with the warm, scalding coolness\u201d) to Andy Warhol (\u201cI am a deeply superficial person\u201d). And let\u2019s not forget baseball\u2019s Yogi Berra (\u201cIt gets late early out there\u201d).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Sound of Silence,\u201d a hit song of the sixties, employed oxymora in both its title and its lyrics: \u201cPeople talking without speaking, \/ People hearing without listening.\u201d More recently, the singer-songwriter Ne-Yo\u2019s song \u201cBeautiful Monster\u201d became a No. 1 hit.<\/p>\n

Movies have always used oxymora to grab our attention: Where East Is West<\/em>, Urban Cowboy<\/em>, Back to the Future<\/em>, True Lies<\/em>, Eyes Wide Shut<\/em>, Slumdog Millionaire<\/em>, The Little Giant<\/em> (1933) and The Little Giants<\/em> (1994), and at least three films titled Silent Scream<\/em>. The late-sixties shocker Night of the Living Dead<\/em> inspired the cable-TV megahit The Walking Dead<\/em>, right down to the oxymoron in the title.<\/p>\n

Countless oxymora have made their way into everyday speech: open secret<\/em>, dry ice<\/em>, benign neglect<\/em>, wireless cable<\/em>. A term for an early version of a piano, pianoforte<\/em>, was a type of oxymoron\u2014in Italian, it means \u201csoft-loud,\u201d which for the early piano was an abbreviation of “harpischord with soft and loud.” The pianoforte<\/em>‘s notes could be produced as soft or loud according to the player’s touch. The term fortepiano\u00a0<\/em>(“loud-soft”) also was used interchangeably in referring to the instrument.<\/p>\n

Yet another example of an oxymoron in our common vernacular is the word sophomore<\/em> (\u201cwise fool\u201d). In Greek, sophos<\/em> means \u201cwise,\u201d and moros<\/em>, as we\u2019ve seen, means \u201cfoolish.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The oxymoron has endured because it is so effective. We never seem to tire of this hardy rhetorical flourish. The mystery of the paradox commands our attention. We ponder the words and ask: How can fair be foul? How can a scream be silent? A great oxymoron underscores life\u2019s ironies and reminds us that the things that matter are complicated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An oxymoron is a turn of phrase that contains a contradiction or paradox. Some familiar examples: definite maybe, same difference, poor little rich girl. The word oxymoron derives from Greek: oxus means \u201csharp; quick,\u201d and moros means \u201cdull; foolish.\u201d Sharply foolish? Eureka! Oxymoron is itself an oxymoron. The plural is traditionally oxymora, but some now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-definitions","category-effective-writing"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2054"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2054"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6627,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2054\/revisions\/6627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}