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