What is an OXymoron?

Etymology:

From the Greek, "sharp-dull"

Examples and Observations:

• the expressions "act naturally," "random order," "original copy," "found missing," "alone together," "criminal justice," "old news," "peace force," "even odds," "awful good," "student teacher," "definite possibility," "definite maybe," "terribly pleased," "civil war," "real phony," "ill health," "turn up missing," "jumbo shrimp," "loose tights," "small crowd," and "clearly misunderstood"

• "How is it possible to have a civil war?"
  (George Carlin)

• Porky Pig: That's an oxymoron, sir.
  Daffy Duck as Duck Dodgers: What did you call me?
  Porky Pig: An oxymoron is a figure of speech in which contradictory terms are combined, like "free trade" or "compassionate conservatism."
  Daffy Duck as Duck Dodgers: That attitude of yours is killing us in the fly-over states.
  (Duck Dodgers, 2005)

• " . . . that great modern oxymoron 'eco-tourism,' suggesting a four-wheel drive hurrying north up the motorway with three mountain bikes bolted to the back."
  (Ian Jack, "Yours for £1.4m--and You Won't Pay a Penny." The Guardian, Feb. 20, 2010)

• "O brawling love! O loving hate! . . .
  O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
  Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
  Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!
  Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
  This love feel I, that feel no love in this."
  (William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet)

• "The best cure for insomnia is to get a lot of sleep."
  (W.C. Fields)

• "A yawn may be defined as a silent yell."
  (G.K. Chesterton)

• "I hate intolerant people."
  (Gloria Steinem)

• "Oxymoronic humor, which is more cerebral than visceral, can be deliciously tasteful. Stand-up comics have always recognized this:

Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering--and it's all over much too soon.
Woody Allen

We sleep in separate rooms, we have dinner apart, we take separate vacations. We're doing everything we can to keep our marriage together.
Rodney Dangerfield

Last month I blew $5,000 on a reincarnation seminar. I figured, hey, you only live once.
Randy Shakes

As you can see from these examples, oxymoronic humor is sophisticated humor. It's directed at the most important organ in the human body--the brain. The self-contradictory aspects of oxymoronic humor appeal to a special part of our mental apparatus, a part that enjoys thinking about some of life's most intriguing contradictions and paradoxes."
(Mardy Grothe, Oxymoronica: Paradoxical Wit and Wisdom from History's Greatest Wordsmiths. HarperCollins, 2004)

• "We picked a bad year to have a good year."
  (Ken Griffey, Jr., in 1994, the year of the major league baseball strike)

• "O miserable abundance, O beggarly riches!"
  (John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions)

• "Health food makes me sick."
  (Calvin Trillin)

• "We have to believe in free will. We have no choice."
  (Isaac Bashevis Singer)

• "That building is a little bit big and pretty ugly."
  (James Thurber)

• "'I want to move with all deliberate haste,' said President-elect Barack Obama at his first, brief press conference after his election, 'but I emphasize "deliberate" as well as "haste."'
  
  "It’s not easy to be both deliberate and hasty at the same time unless you are consciously embracing an oxymoron--from the Greek word meaning 'pointedly foolish'--and it is a jarring juxtaposition of contradictory words like 'cruel kindness' and 'thunderous silence.'"
  (William Safire, "Frugalista." The New York Times, Nov. 21, 2008)

• "The phrase 'domestic cat' is an oxymoron."
  (George Will)

• "I want to die young at a ripe old age."
  (Ashley Montagu)

• "An oxymoron is formed when two words that don't normally go together are conjoined, creating a compressed paradox. A paradox is interesting because it is false and true at the same time. Paradoxical observations are often extraordinarily thought provoking, helping us see old realities in new ways. Somebody once said--quite wisely--that a paradox is a truth standing on its head to get our attention."
  (Mardy Grothe, Viva la Repartee: Clever Comebacks and Witty Retorts from History's Great Wits and Wordsmiths. HarperCollins, 2005)

• "A log palace is an architectural as well as a verbal oxymoron; so is a short skyscraper, or an urban villa."
  (J. F. O'Gorman and Dennis E. McGrath, ABC of Architecture. Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1998)

Pronunciation: ox-see-MOR-on

Oxymoron Example List

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

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	rolling stop

Your Funny Oxymorons

Here's a selection of some of the best oxymorons that have been sent to us by our visitors:

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