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Previous Thread Next Thread Print Thread An old word for Saturday #91613 01/11/2003 8:53 PM Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 13,858 wwh Carpal Tunnel wwh Carpal Tunnel Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 13,858 Oxymoron. I have so often seen it used by well-informed people to mean "a stupid remark" that I have been guilty of using it that way. Here is a sample from one of our erudite members: "......All of which only proves that "female intelligence" is an oxymoron....." By accident I just ran across it in a book of words, which made it clear that it is not always a dumb juxtaposition of qualities. For instance: Chinese sweet-sour pork. Nothing stupid about that combination. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: An old word for Saturday #91614 01/11/2003 9:51 PM Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Faldage Carpal Tunnel Faldage Carpal Tunnel Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Mostly I hear it used as though it were synonymous with "contradiction in terms". If you want to be hardline about keeping the purity of the phrase you should save it for phrases that are clever in their contradiction. It might be noted that the word oxymoron is itself an oxymoron, coming from the Greek words for sharp and foolish. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: An old word for Saturday #91615 01/11/2003 10:16 PM Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 13,858 wwh Carpal Tunnel wwh Carpal Tunnel Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 13,858 Dear Faldage: Here is a URL entitled "Oxymoron" of stupid statements atributed to Dan Quayle: This how I got to thinking of an oxymoron, not as a juxtaposition of opposites, but a bit of stupidity. http://www.greendomain.org/oxymoron_quayleisms.html Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Moderated by  Jackie  Hop To General Topics ------  Information and announcements  Q&A about words  Wordplay and fun  Words and languages in schools  Miscellany  Weekly Themes  Looking for (writers, speakers,... (Old) Weekly themes. (have been... ------  Words from medicine  Beheading words  Meta-words  Words from classical mythology  Animal Safari  Words with unusual etymologies  Eponyms or words derived from p...  Loanwords from German  English as a global language Print Thread Switch to Threaded Mode Show Likes Link Copied to Clipboard View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Website Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary

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