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I meant (quite obviously, really, in the context of this thread) that "unicursal maze" is oxymoronic to the mathematic distinction between a maze and a labyrinth (where a maze has bifurcating pathways and a labyrinth a single pathway, i.e., is unicursal).
Must you constantly pick nits?
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Hey! Oxymoron itself is an oxymoron. There are two types of mazes. One you can traverse by taking every possible right turn and turning around when you get to a dead end. It's called a simply-connected maze. The other kind, a disjoint maze, you can't traverse using that technique.
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All right Pook. It's go time. Let's pick nits. A 'mathematical oxymoron' would be itself an oxymoron, since oxymoron is not mathematical but a figure of speech. Rhetoric allows delightful ambiquities such as oxymorons, mathematics doesn't - it's either right or wrong. Unless I have been deceived, mathematicians are capable of using words and words can be used to describe mathematical concepts. The descriptions may therefore include an oxymoron: "a four-sided circle". But that's completely besides the point. If you had read the thread, you would know exactly what I meant: Wiki's "unicursal maze" is oxymoronic according to the terms it outlined, which distinction, as a matter of fact, was not initially referred to by me as mathematical, nor even Wikipedia: but modern scholars of the subject use a stricter definition. Now, if you please, let my nits be.
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Hey! Oxymoron itself is an oxymoron. From the Greek for sharp and dull (i.e. figuratively clever and foolish)
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Hey! Oxymoron itself is an oxymoron. From the Greek for sharp and dull (i.e. figuratively clever and foolish) Time was when an oxymoron was probably intentional. E.g.: ...parting is such sweet sorrow ... --- Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, scene 2, 184
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Faith unfaithful kept him falsely true...
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Time was when an oxymoron was probably intentional.
Yes, it is a rhetorical figure, making it a usage concern, and not a solecism.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Time was when an oxymoron was probably intentional.
Yes, it is a rhetorical figure, making it a usage concern, and not a solecism. Yes in its purest sense an oxymoron is intentional rhetoric, not accidental. But through popular usage it has come to mean also any contradiction in terms, especially one that is unintentionally ironic.
Last edited by The Pook; 07/08/08 04:23 AM.
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