In reply to:
Silva Rhetoricae http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/silva.htm defines irony as Speaking in such a way as to imply the contrary of what one says, often for the purpose of derision, mockery, or jest.
So what is the correct term for what Dub Dub' defined?
irony as a figure of speech is as you defined it, but there are two other types:
2. irony in the figurative sense: a condition of affairs or events of a character opposite to what was, or might naturally be, expected; a contradictory outcome of events as if in mockery of the promise and fitness of things (tragic irony, in F. ironie du sort).
3. irony in the etymological sense: dissimulation, pretence; esp. in reference to the dissimulation of ignorance practiced by Socrates as a means of confuting an adversary (Socratic irony).
the Greek root means dissimulation, ignorance purposely affected; the figurative sense has come about through, some might say, misuse; but even here it was originally used in a more classical sense: The contrast between man with his hopes, fears, wishes, and undertakings, and a dark, inflexible fate, affords abundant room for the exhibition of tragic irony.
the leap from Thomas Hardy's Life's Little Ironies to Alanis Morrissette's "Isn't it Ironic" is a big one.
http://www.ebooks3.com/cgi-bin/ebooks/ebook.cgi?folder=lifes_little_ironies&next=1
http://www.saywhat.sphosting.com/a/alanisironic.shtml
