What is the word history of "oxymoron"?
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Oxymoron\n\nThe Oxford English Dictionary defines oxymoron this way:\nA rhetorical figure by which contradictory or incongruous terms\nare conjoined so as to give point to the statement or expression;\nan expression in its superficial or literal meaning self-\ncontradictory or absurd, but involving a point.\n\nAnother of my favorite reference works, The Oxford Companion to the English Language, has a slightly more readable entry:\n\n    A term in rhetoric for bringing opposites together in a compact\n    paradoxical word or phrase: bittersweet; be cruel to be kind; a\n    cheerful pessimist. The term is often used for social comment,\n    both humorously or cynically (such as calling military\n    intelligence a contradiction in terms).\n\nOxymoron has an interesting etymology. In ancient Greece oxus meant "sharp; pointed" and moros meant "dull; stupid; foolish." So the word oxymoron is itself an oxymoron, literally meaning something like "a sharp dullness" or "pointed foolishness." Technically, the correct plural form of the word is oxymora, but so many people say oxymorons that it is now generally regarded as an acceptable usage. I use both forms of the words, depending on the audience.\n\nThe word first made its appearance in the English language in 1640, when an English cleric named Brother Reynolds made reference to "a bold and true oxymoron of Seneca." For many centuries, it was an obscure word, familiar only to classical scholars and students of rhetoric. When I graduated from high school in 1960, for example, I didn't have a clue about what it meant. Several months later, during my freshman year at the University of North Dakota, I recall an English professor introducing the word in her class. For almost all of us, it was the first time we had heard the word. We delighted in the examples she cited: pretty ugly, old news, and serious fun.\n\nDuring the 1960s and 70s, the word began to be used with increasing frequency, especially in college environments, but it was still an uncommon word. Then, in 1986, Warren S. Blumenfeld published a small book titled Jumbo Shrimp and Other Almost Perfect Oxymorons. Blumenfeld, a professor at Georgia State University, defined oxymorons as "contradictory expressions that make absolute sense." Even though the book was written in an overly-cutesy style, it made a quite a splash. Articles about oxymorons began appearing in newspapers all over the country and Blumenfeld was a frequent guest on radio talk shows. As much as anybody, this otherwise little-known Georgia professor helped make oxymoron the household word it is today. In 1989, he published a sequel titled, Pretty Ugly: More Oxymorons and Other Illogical Expressions That Make Absolute Sense. In that book he described the object of his interest this way:\nAn oxymoron is two concepts (usually two words)\nthat do not go together but are used together.\nIt is the bringing together of contradictory expressions.\n\nThe New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics adds a fascinating dimension to our understanding of oxymoron when it links it to another important literary and rhetorical device: paradox:\nA figure of speech which yokes together\ntwo seemingly contradictory elements.\nOxymoron is thus a form of condensed paradox.\n\nA condensed paradox? How interesting that the terms oxymoron and paradox, not normally mentioned in the same breath, are actually quite closely related. Let's take a closer look at it.\n\nParadox\n\nParadox is a concept with a long and rich history in literary and intellectual circles. And, while almost all literate people are familiar with the word, it is also true that most of them have trouble defining what it means. Before reading on, give it a shot. Try to describe the meaning of paradox in a few simple words. Ask a couple of friends or family members to try it as well. Don't be surprised if some pretty intelligent people stumble ov
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Main Entry: bom·bas·tic \nPronunciation: bäm-'bas-tik\nFunction: adjective\n: marked by or given to bombast : POMPOUS, OVERBLOWN\n- bom·bas·ti·cal·ly  /-ti-k(&-)lE/ adverb   \nGrandiloquent, pompous speech or writing.
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A web-site about words--quite interesting\n\nhttp://www.startwright.com/words1.htm#Nymonyms
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try this etymology site:
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I din't find that word in any dictionary.  The closest suggestion is enantiomorph.
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no, its hypocritical. oxy moron is 2 opposite words used together like "jumbo shrimp"
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Misnomer, no.  Oxymoron, certainly.
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its just how it sounds. The word hipocrit was derived from the latin word hipocrita
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Homonyms.  \n\nHomina-homina, on the other hand, is onomatopoeia.The sound a gibbering teenage boy makes when presented with the new Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.
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I think that's what you call an OXYMORON
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What's the defintion?\n\nWas Validictorian the word you were looking for?
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Perfectly good word -- just see the wiki reference.  (-: I really like the phrase "primordial soup" -- you can just see the beginnings of life springing from this muck and stew.
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Oxymorons are fun\n\n20. Government Organization\n19. Alone Together\n18. Personal Computer \n17. Silent Scream\n16. Living Dead\n15. Same Difference\n14. Taped Live\n13. Plastic Glasses\n12. Tight Slacks\n11. Peace Force\n10. Pretty Ugly\n9. Head Butt\n8. Working Vacation\n7. Tax Return\n6. Virtual Reality\n5. Dodge Ram\n4. Work Party\n3. Jumbo Shrimp\n2. Healthy Tan\n1. Microsoft Works \n\n\n\nhttp://www.oxymoronlist.com/
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1838, Amer.Eng., "some kind iof alcoholic drink," of unknown origin. \n\nOne of that class of words (e.g. dingus, doohickey, gadget, gizmo, thingumabob) which are conjured up to supply names for items whose proper names are unknown or not recollected. \n\nUsed at various periods for "money," "a professional tramp," "a muffin," "a typographical ornament," "male genitalia," "a Chinese," "an Italian," "a woman who is neither your sister nor your mother," and "a foolish person in authority." \n\nPopularized in sense of "foolish person" by TV show "All in the Family" (1971), though this usage dates from 1905.
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pompatus (POM-pa-tus) n. pompitous, puppetutes, pulpitudes, pompitudes [Coined by Vernon Green, "The Letter", 1954, made famous by Steve Miller's "The Joker".] A term I coined to mean a secret paper-doll fantasy figure [thus puppet], who would be my everything and bear my children. - Vernon Green, StraightDope.com \n\nRetrieved from "http://www.langmaker.com/db/Pompatus"
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I found this on line,\n\n"Devious Derivations: Popular Misconceptions -- and More than 1,000 True Origins of Common Words and Phrases" by Hugh Rawson (toExcel, Iuniverse.com, 1994, 2000). This reference has some new information on the origins listed here (new information in parenthesis), new origins and what could be the actual origin. \n\n: : 1. Orrin Kendall biscuits, which soldiers ate during the Civil War. \n: : 2. Short for Aux Cayes, a Haitian port that American sailors praised for its rum. \n: : 3. Old Keokuk, a Native American tribal chief who was said to have signed treaties with his initials. \n: : 4. OK stands for "all correct" or the illiterate phrase "Orl Korrect." \n: : 5. U.S. President Martin Van Buren's nickname "Old Kinderhook" -- OK for short. He was a native of Kinderhook, N.Y.\n: : 6. Choctaw word "okeh," (or "hoke") meaning "indeed" (or "It is so.")\n: : 7. Scottish "auch aye", meaning "ah yes." (Or "och aye," meaning "okay.")\n: : 8. From the French maritime phrase "au quai" meaning "at dock", and therefore at last safe from the ravages of the open sea.\n: : 9. '0 killed' - the report of the night's death toll during the First World War. \n: : 10. All clear after the shoot-out at O.K. Corral. \n: : 11. Instruments calibrated at an Observatory at Kew had, affixed to them, a stamp, or impression, to authenticate that calibration. This stamp was O K - Observatory Kew. \n\n: : New origins from Mr. Rawson's book:\n: : 12. The abbreviation is for Oberst Kommandant, German for "Colonel in Command," used by either -- take your pick -- a General Schliessen or Baron von Steuben when initialing letters and orders during the American Revolution.\n: : 13. It comes from the name of a freight agent, Obadiah Kelly, whose initials were widely disseminated on bills of lading.\n: : 14. The abbreviation is for Open Key, popularized by telegraphers in the 1860s.\n: : 15. It comes from the names of Lords Onslow and Kilbracken, who initialed bills after they were read and approved in England's House of Lords. \n: : 16. From a misreading of "Order Recorded" on official documents.\n: : 17. Or from Finnish "oikea," correct.\n: : 18. From the Greek "olla," all, plus "Kalla," good.\n\n: : Professor Allen Walker Read of Columbia University, "finally unveiled its (O.K.'s) origins in a series of magisterial articles in 'American Speech' in 1963 and 1964.What Professor Read discovered was that the abbreviation arose in a humorous manner at a time when Americans were indulging in a great deal of wordplay, including abbreviations, acronyms, puns and intentional mispronunciations and misspellings. The earliest example of O.K. that he unearthed (and it is so far still the oldest known specimen) is from the Boston 'Morning Post' of March 23, 1839. It appears in connection with a note by the paper's editor, Charles Gordon Greene, about a visit to New York of some members of the local Anti-Bell-Ringing Society. (The A.B.R.S., as it was usually known, was itself something of a joke, having been formed the previous year to oppose -- its name to the contrary -- an ordinance of the Boston Common Council against ringing dinner bells.) In an aside, Mr. Greene suggested that if the Bostonians were to return home via Providence, they might be greeted by one of his rivals, the editor of that city's 'Journal,' who 'would have the 'contribution box,' et ceteras, o.k. -- all correct -- and cause the corks to fly, like sparks, upward.'.Thus, it appears that O.K. was invented, possibly by Greene, as an abbreviation of the jocular 'Oll' or perhaps 'Orl korrect,' meaning "All right.' This explanation would seem farfetched, except for Read's finding that it dovetai
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Floccinaucinihilipilification.\n\nThe Guinness Book of Records, in its 1992 and subsequent editions, declared the "longest real word" in the English language to be floccinaucinihilipilification at 29 letters. Defined as "the act of estimating (something) as worthless", its usage has been recorded as far back as 1741.