Date: Tue Dec 26 00:17:10 EST 2000
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--antiphrasis
X-Bonus: A multitude of laws in a country is like a great number of physicians, a sign of weakness and malady. -Voltaire, philosopher (1694-1778)

antiphrasis (an-TIF-ruh-sis) noun

The use of a word or phrase in a sense contrary to its normal meaning
for ironic or humorous effect, as in a mere babe of 40 years.

[Late Latin, from Greek, from antiphrazein, to express by the opposite :
anti-, anti- + phrazein, to speak.]

"He was murmuring something between lips decorated by a little mustache,
which gave a sarcastic touch to his clerk-like expression, a mustache
folded over his mouth like an antiphrasis, which tinged whatever he said
with maliciousness, no matter how solemn it was."
Edoardo Albinati & John Satriano, Story Written on a Motorcycle,
Antioch Review, Summer 1992.

"Perhaps Charles McGrath, in The New Yorker, sums up the ambivalence most
eloquently. `How good are these books really?' he asks, and answers: not
so good--although he does so in the more flattering antiphrasis of `good
enough that you wish they were even better.'"
Neil Gordon, The admiral, Village Voice, Jun 6, 1995.
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from: http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/archives/1200

This reminds me of one of my favorites of Anu's categories: words that go out of their way to not apply to themselves.