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OP Many thanks to all who have posted ideas so far. Deliberately self-contradictory terms (e.g., sophmore), and logical conundrums (e.g. Russel's paradox) are great fun, but i think I have something different in mind, namely, instances where the paradox is not built into the word or phrase but arises from a particular social context. In other words, while "sophmore" will always be an oxymoron, "exoteric" will be paradoxical only as long as its use remains limited to a small circle of people. If, for example, William Safire were to write a column about "exoteric" being a paradoxical word, the word would no longer be paradoxical, or less so anyway.
There may not actually be very many such words. I hadn't given the matter much thought until I came across 'exoteric' the October AWAD posting.
David Schwartz
Department of Neurobiology
Duke University Medical Center
David Schwartz
Department of Neurobiology
Duke University Medical Center
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted seeking paradoxical words dschwartz65 01/04/03 05:25 PM cabbage [wink] rav 01/04/03 06:37 PM Re: seeking paradoxical words wwh 01/04/03 06:40 PM Re: seeking paradoxical words wwh 01/04/03 07:43 PM Re: seeking paradoxical words tsuwm 01/04/03 08:24 PM strange loops are everywhere wofahulicodoc 01/05/03 02:54 AM Re: strange loops are everywhere Faldage 01/05/03 01:21 PM This satement is false. wofahulicodoc 01/05/03 09:24 PM Re: seeking paradoxical words dschwartz65 01/06/03 01:50 AM Re: seeking paradoxical words milum 01/06/03 02:50 AM Re: seeking paradoxical words tsuwm 01/06/03 04:25 AM Re: seeking paradoxical words Jackie 01/12/03 02:25 AM
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