Oxymorons (or oxymora) are literary figures of speech usually composed of a pair of neighbouring contradictory words (often within a sentence). However this is not always the case. The Webster Dictionary defines oxymoron as "a combination of contradictory or incongruous words". o

Oxymorons can be used for dramatic effect, for example: Hell's Angels and deafening silence. They can also be comical, such as in civil engineer. Clearly this is not an oxymoron in the true and strict sense, but the suggestion that it is oxymoronic is humorous. o

Perhaps the most well-known of all oxymorons is Jumbo Shrimp (at least in the US; not in the UK where a jumbo shrimp is known as a king prawn). o

Others have quite acceptable meaningful uses in English, but, when analysed word for word, contain contradictions. Examples include almost perfect, clearly misunderstood, and pretty ugly. These are only oxymorons in a punning sense. o

The word oxymoron (plural: oxymora or oxymorons) is derived from the Greek for pointedly foolish (oxys = SHARP, KEEN + moros = FOOLISH). o

Here are our top 36 favourite oxymorons – oxymorons in a loose sense of the word: o

open secret

larger half

clearly confused

act naturally

alone together

Hell's Angels

found missing

liquid gas

civil engineer

deafening silence

seriously funny

living dead

Microsoft Works

military intelligence

jumbo shrimp

Advanced BASIC

tragic comedy

unbiased opinion

virtual reality

definite maybe

original copies

pretty ugly

same difference

plastic glasses

almost exactly

constant variable

even odds

minor crisis

extinct life

genuine imitation

exact estimate

only choice

freezer burn

free love

working holiday

stop rolling

to be continue ... o

Great Depression

free trade

peacekeeper missile

sweet tart

crash landing

now then

butt head

sweet sorrow

student teacher

silent scream

taped live

alone together

good grief

tight slacks

living dead

near miss

light tanks

old news

hot chilli

criminal justice

peace force

Oxymoronology

by Richard Lederer

Single-word Oxymora Composed of Dependent Morphemes

o The more in oxymoron also gives us the more in sophomore, a "wise fool" – and there are indeed many sophomoric sophomores. Other examples: pianoforte ("soft-loud"), o
o preposterous ("before-after"), and superette ("big-small"). o

Single-word Oxymora Composed of Independent Morphemes

Two meaning-bearing elements that could each be a word in itself are welded together into a single word: spendthrift, bridegroom, bittersweet, ballpoint, speechwriting, firewater and someone. o

Logological Oxymora

If we view words as surface letter combinations and disregard meaning, we note that the word nook joins the opposing words no and OK, and the name Noyes, no and yes. I welcome additional specimens from Word Ways readers. o

Natural Oxymora

Most speakers of English who know the definition of an oxymoron would have little trouble identifying the pairs inside out, student teacher, working vacation and small fortune as oxymora. I call this major category of oxymoronology "natural" because the perception of these duos as oxymora is relatively direct and effortless and does not depend on plays on words or personal values. Among the tens of additional examples: o

industrial park

open secret

sight unseen

loyal opposition

idiot savant

light heavyweight

original copy

final draft

random order

freezer burn

negative growth

standard deviation

build-down

elevated subway

mobile home

benign neglect

fresh frozen

deliberate speed

benevolent despot

recorded live

one-man band

old boy

living end

Punning Oxymora

Probably the best-known oxymoron in the United States is one from comedian George Carlin's record "Toledo Window Box," the delightful jumbo shrimp. I submit that the popularity of jumbo shrimp springs in part from an invitation to leap from an apparent meaning to a less-apparent one. While the meaning of jumbo as "large" is obvious, we must rise above the surface significance of shrimp, "decapod crustacean," to the more elevated "small." This is the stuff that punning is made of, the compacting of two meanings into a verbal space that they do not occupy in ordinary discourse. Thus, flat busted relies on the multiple meanings of the second word, "financially broke" and "breasts." This process is at work in the likes of even odds, baby grand, cardinal sin, female jock, indoor bleachers and death benefit. Punning can lurk even in single-word oxymora such as wholesome. o

Conversion Puns

Closely related to the above is a group of oxymoronic pairs that rely on the coexistence of two parts of speech for the same word. Some of my favorites in this small cluster are press release, kickstand, divorce court, building wrecking and White Rose in which the oxymora emerge only with the interpretation of the two words in each pair as verbs. o

Dead Metaphors

Over time a word may become emptied of its original meaning. Fabulous, for example, no longer denotes "based on a fable," and awful, for another example, no longer means "awe-inspiring." But enough of the primordial meaning may respose in a word that it becomes oxymoronic when set along another word that collides with its earlier signification: o

awful(ly) good

terribly good

damned good

many fewer

barely clothed

exactly wrong

clearly obfuscating

far nearer

kind of cruel

hardly easy

a little big

growing small

Close kin to the first two is wicked good . A product of American slang, in which bad has come to mean "good" and cool mean "hot," wicked good clearly empties the old meaning from wicked. But the draining is so contrived that wicked good should perhaps be assigned to the next category. o

Crafted Oxymora

Some compact paradoxes have about them a sense of consciousness contrivance and crafting, as when Stephen Douglas was dubbed the Little Giant and Tom Landry approached a Super Bowl saying that his team was confidently scared. When we say same difference, global village, accidentally on purpose, "it went over like a lead balloon," and "keep it down to a dull roar," we are likely to be more aware of the collision of opposites than when we say old news, indoor bleachers and death benefit. o

Literary Oxymora

Brightly crystallized forms of oxymoronic language become art in literature created by our greatest writers: o

hateful good
(Chaucer)

proud humility
(Spenser)

darkness visible
(Milton)

damn with faint praise
(Pope)

expressive silence
(Thomson)

melancholy merriment
(Byron)

falsely true
(Tennyson)

parting is such sweet sorrow
(Shakespeare)

scalding coolness
(Hemingway)

Doublespeak Oxymora

When people consciously fabricate oxymoronic combinations with the purpose of confusing us, we enter the world of doublespeak, defined by William Lutz in Doublespeak as "language that pretends to communicate but really doesn't. It is language that makes the bad seem good, the negative appear positive, the unpleasant appear attractive or at least tolerable... It is language that conceals or prevents thought." Oxymora like: o

genuine imitation

virtually spotless

real counterfeit diamonds

mandatory option

new and improved

terminal living

constitute language that, according to Lutz, "avoids or shifts responsibility... is at variance with its real or purported meaning." o

Opinion Oxymora

When we inject our personal values and editorialize unabashedly, we expand our oxymoronic repertoire considerably. Those of us who spout oxymora to entertain others quickly learn that opinion (or editorial) oxymora ordinarily evoke the roundest laughs from an audience: o

military intelligence

non-working mother

young Republican

war games

peacekeeper missile

business ethics

student athlete

Iranian moderate

designer jeans

rock music

postal service

Amtrak schedule

airline food

Greater (fill in a city) o

educational television

President (your scapegoat) o

I make no pretensions of having forever clarified the discipline of oxymoronology or of having presented in my disquisition a complete taxonomy. First, I know that in some Platonic realm float oxymoronic forms that I have not yet made fixed and concrete. Should a special category be assigned to oxymora generated by emerging technologies? Some examples of these are: o

paper tablecloths

green blackboards

metal wood

plastic silverware

plastic glasses

plastic wood

What about evolving oxymora, word pairs that were once pleonasms but have, of late, trans-mogrified into oxymora: healthy tan or Soviet Union? Or oxymora such as criminal lawyer (in a time of lawyer-bashing) that have traveled in the opposite direction and become pleonasms? Let us hope that United Nations, once an oxymoron, may soon complete its journey to pleonasm. And, speaking of Soviet Union, should place names be given a special place? A few examples of these are Little Big Horn, Old New York, and Fork Union. o
And let us admit that the categories I have named are not always mutually exclusive. Old news, loose tights, and tight slacks tiptoe along the fuzzy boundary between natural and punning oxymora. Civil engineer is both a punning and opinion oxymoron. Is Moral Majority simply an opinion oxymoron, or can we also class it as an evolving oxymoron? Is semiboneless an honest single-word oxymoron or an example of doublespeak? Are good grief and now then (as in "Now then, will the class please come to order?") punning oxymora or dead metaphors – or can they be both? oShould oxymoronic strings like the double-play fresh frozen jumbo shrimp be accorded special mention? What about triple plays in which all three words interact? This category sprang to mind when I learned early last year that NBC had named comedian Jay Leno as permanent guest host for the "Tonight" Show. o

o © 1990 Ross Eckler (Editor, Word Ways). o

Salam guys I hope you liked my thread

So, anybody knows any Oxymora in Arabic ?? o

I mean smth like
شوي كتير - السهل الممتنع - حمصي ذكي - نازل عتركيا - طالع عالمزرعة - عصير بونجورنو طبيعي ... إلخ

Please share your Oxymoras with us

حبيبي يقبرني......

غص الدرج.....نزلت دموع الباب..........

أنت أنا.....( وائل كفوري)..........

هلئ هيك طلعوا الأوكسيمورونات معك كين ؟ .. ارجاع اقرا الموضوع

متل...واحد بيقربني قربة بعييييييييييييدة..!!