#74093
06/25/2002 5:59 AM
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833 |
This may well have been done before, but there seem to be a lot of new members (myself included!) who may not have seen it. Howzabout coming up with a list of oxymorons?
Some obvious ones:
Religious war
Confirmed atheist
Jumbo shrimp
Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.
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#74094
06/25/2002 8:57 AM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
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#74095
06/25/2002 9:00 AM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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A good one from the above site I posted: Tight slacksHere's another site that proclaims its being the largest online oxymoron site: http://www.oxymoronlist.com/
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#74096
06/25/2002 9:04 AM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 6,296 |
Here's one from the above site (which has certainly questionable oxymorons, but this won't ain't): thunderous silenceAnd a final link: http://pages.city2000.net/~mking/oxy.htmAnd a final oxymoron from that link: "Happy Monday"
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#74097
06/25/2002 11:32 AM
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526 |
Religious war
Confirmed atheist
I'm really tired these days. How are these oxymorons?
k
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#74098
06/25/2002 11:37 AM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 6,296 |
I wouldn't call confirmed atheist and religious war oxymorons.
Just my opinion,
WW
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#74099
06/25/2002 11:58 AM
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526
veteran
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veteran
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Posts: 1,526 |
Is there such a thing as a "criminal lawyer" and, if so, does it really narrow down the search space?
k
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#74100
06/25/2002 1:21 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 13,858 |
There are those (not including me) who might say "criminal lawyer" is a tautology.
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#74101
06/25/2002 1:28 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
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I wouldn't call confirmed atheist and religious war oxymoronsIf confirmation is taken in the religious sense, the former is indeed an oxymoron, and also a pun. Religious war isn't necessarily an oxymoron - in fact, practically every religion subscribes to fighting the "good" fight in some form or another. OK, a fight that is more spiritual than physical may be meant, but waddya expect? Reason overruling gut reaction?   Here's a previous oxymoron thread, courtesy of wow: http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=wordplay&Number=57328It often strikes me that oxymorons and paradoxes should be meaningless, but quite often come across meaningful, and occasionally profound. You can almost think up a deliberate paradox/oxymoron and find meaning in it: Blindingly obvious. Infinitely well-defined. Fantastically commonplace. Brilliantly dull. And - tightening the circle - there are enantiodromic words such as priceless, invaluable and bottomless ( http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=words&Number=451) Which all goes to prove that language reflects reality, in that opposites coexist all over the place, and at the extreme opposites have more rather than less in common with one another.  We don't live in a binary/boolean world. Another contribution to the new Philosophy of Words forum, perhaps.. Paradoxical FishonaBike
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#74102
06/25/2002 4:39 PM
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 39
newbie
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newbie
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 39 |
I'm not sure this belongs here, but I'm reminded of the difference between a generalist and a specialist:
The specialist learns more and more about less and less until he knows everything about nothing.
The generalist learns less and less about more and more until he knows nothing about everything.
These two opposites mean the same thing in the extreme limit!
Robert
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#74103
06/25/2002 10:37 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Of course, an oxymoron really means the pinhead freak in sideshow at carnival or oldtime circus.
c.f. oxycephalic
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#74104
06/26/2002 1:04 AM
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833 |
Thanks Fish - and others....Perhaps "religious war" isn't an oxymoron - I've just always heard it referred to as one, and it makes sense to me simply because of the "thou shalt not kill" rule that appears in all three "book" religions (I believe it does?) - Christianity, Islam and Judaism (doing it in alphabetical order in an attempt not to insult ANYONE!).
How about this one, which apparently ran in a sentence in a review of a play a friend of mine was in? (told me by the friend, of course):
incredibly believable
Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.
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#74105
06/27/2002 9:29 AM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
the difference between a generalist and a specialistLike it, Robert  . Have already quoted it to all who would care to listen, and some that wouldn't. I think I aspire to be an extreme specialist. Fisk
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#74106
06/27/2002 12:01 PM
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I think I'm a general specialist...
generally...
formerly known as etaoin...
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#74107
06/27/2002 12:49 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
I think I'm a general specialist...
A military leader with only one or two tactics could be a specialist general.
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#74108
06/27/2002 12:58 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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These are from one of the sites I found:
American beer
American culture
American education
American English
American geographers
American history
...cute.
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#74109
06/27/2002 1:14 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear WW: your choices of oxymorons sound like you come from Marin county.
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#74110
06/27/2002 2:23 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear wwh,
I'm an ALL-A-Marin County Girl***!
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#74111
06/27/2002 2:29 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 2,605 |
johnjohn gets full credit for this one, which he posted back in September 2000:
"plain language for lawyers" ( - an oxymoron, I hear you say)
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#74112
06/27/2002 2:39 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Keiva: In plain language you are not welcome on AWADtalk.
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#74114
06/28/2002 10:09 AM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
American beer
American culture
American education
American English
American geographers
American history If that wasn't a UK site, then at least American irony isn't an oxymoronic phrase! Mind you, then we'd have to get into a discussion of what irony means and so forth.. And here's a previous thread on that subject, kicked off by none other than you yourself WW: http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=miscellany&Number=47618- Though I have to say that (IMH eavily biasedO) the thread lacks something in Britlish input  . I mean, referring at some juncture to Alanis Morrissette's "Isn't It Ironic" as providing examples of irony? Puh-leeeze!  Fisk
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#74115
06/29/2002 7:32 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
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#74116
06/29/2002 8:14 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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a she wolf could just be a female wolf.
i have read, however, that she wolf, (as in she who weaned the twins romulus and romus(sp?) was actually a insulting term.. similar to bitch (a female dog, often used as a term to denigrade women) and most particularly use as a term for a prostiute.
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#74117
06/29/2002 9:06 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
<<a she wolf could just be a [she wolf]>>
Hence, the question mark--a joke, an invitation to mild outrage.
But as to double meaning, the same remark was made in substance to "confirmed aetheist," which is a phrase confirmed an oxymoron by wit, not common meaning.
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#74118
06/29/2002 9:44 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Dear IP: I suspect many an atheist was confirmed in the days when it was hazardpis
to your health to admit being an atheist. But in those days anybody who did not
accept the Church dogma was an atheist. I cannot uderstand any intelligent person
thinking the Universe and our World arose by chance. Chance can create very little,
since it tears down at approximately the same rate as it builds up. The fable about
a million monkeys typing for a million years rewriting all of Shakespeare is nonsense.
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#74119
06/30/2002 4:16 AM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
Dear wwh:
I gather you're not arguing with me, since I didn't express any view one way or another about atheism. Since you mention it, though, and without expressing any view as to the existence or non-existence of God, the argument that the world did not arise by chance does not lead to the conclusion that it was created, particularly not through some external agency. Chance, or probability, I would say, is distinctly a part (oxymoron alert) of an *existing* universe. But that's just what I think.
As to all those monkeys, the fable implies that they would strike the keys randomly. If they did, it would at least be possible that they type up all of shakespeare --rather as attorneys sometimes do their briefs. It seems to me unlikely, however, that they *would* type randomly. And, incidentally, I've heard randomness is very difficult to generate.
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#74120
06/30/2002 11:19 AM
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
Very few oxymorons actually derive their humour from the dictionary definitions of the words involved. It's the combination of the words together with their less common meanings which usually makes them funny.
From that standpoint a confirmed atheist is indeed oxymoronic.
I have always like the term "permanent prehostility" which is not an oxymoron but which is a term used in CIA double-speak to mean "peace".
Can anyone come up with an oxymoron which is also a tautology? "Criminal lawyer" is close but not close enough for the cigar.
- Pfranz
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#74121
06/30/2002 11:49 AM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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#74122
06/30/2002 12:52 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Can anyone come up with an oxymoron which is also a tautology?
If I corrrectly understand the question, perhaps "oxymoronic tautology".
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#74123
06/30/2002 1:09 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 13,858 |
Keiva: you were banned for starting a flamewar, and refusing to quit.
You got re-instated by extortion, threats of a lawsuit.You are ;contemptible.
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#74124
06/30/2002 4:20 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
one two nothing
as to tautological oxymorons, and with desire for ire: sweet tart
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