Almost a year ago one of my blog entries discussed redundancies, and while that particular blog didn\u2019t specifically discuss oxymorons, it did address the subject of using two incompatible words together in one expression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, for no particular reason, I thought it might be good to explore the subject of oxymorons. I suppose I should point out that I just used a technically incorrect term by using oxymorons. If you\u2019re referring to more than one oxymoron, they\u2019re not<\/em> called oxymorons, so what do<\/em> you call them? The correct plural form of the word is oxymora.You may, or may not, have even ever heard of that word. Over the years, so many people have been saying oxymorons that \u2014 even though technically incorrect \u2014 the term is so widespread that it\u2019s now considered an acceptable usage by most language scholars. But \u2014 if you want to be precise (and correct,) oxymora is the word to use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ve all heard people use terms like old news, pretty ugly and serious fun without thinking much about it, but these expressions are all oxymorons. In fact we all use them in our speech and writings all the time, without ever thinking about it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Just because I thought it would be interesting, and I didn\u2019t have much to do, I took a little time and flipped through an issue of AARP magazine, the Smithsonian magazine and a couple of on-line news articles and just wrote down expressions that I would consider to be oxymorons. Surprisingly, there were more than I expected and they weren\u2019t hard to spot.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n [While I was browsing, it occurred to me that some of the articles contained what I\u2019d call self-contradictory words and terms, such as almost (is is all or most?) aircraft black box (it\u2019s painted orange.) and broker (this is a guy that\u2019s suppose to be investing our money.)]<\/p>\n\n\n\n But back to oxymorons\/oxymora \u2014 these are some that I found that I\u2019d consider to be incompatible words used together\u2026.\u00a0paid volunteer, friendly takeover, authentic reproduction, small crowd, clearly misunderstood, continuing resolution, United<\/em> States (think about that,) graduate student, experienced novice and only choice. Almost a year ago one of my blog entries discussed redundancies, and while that particular blog didn\u2019t specifically discuss oxymorons, it did address the subject of using two incompatible words together in one expression. Well, for no particular reason, I … Continue reading
And \u2014 one that jumped out at me that I\u2019m sure I wouldn\u2019t have run across a couple of years ago \u2014 social distancing.
\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"