Oxymoron(ancient Greek οξύμωρον - sharp stupidity) - a stylistic figure or a stylistic mistake - a combination of words with the opposite meaning, that is, a combination of incongruous. Oxymoron is characterized by the intentional use of contradiction to create a stylistic effect. From a psychological point of view, an oxymoron is a way to resolve an inexplicable situation.
Sometimes it is born spontaneously, and even takes root for a long time due to its brightness.

Examples of oxymorons:
add minus
benefit
intelligent bandit
honest swindler
merciful flayer
friends terrarium
pack of comrades

Paperless securities
Endless dead end
Cheerful sadness
Hot Snow
The dialectic of tautology
Life-giving euthanasia
Living Dead
gaping peaks
courageous woman
People's oligarchy
elegant nudity
Unpaid salary
Innovative tradition
Ordinary miracle
Urbanism of nomadic tribes

Oxymoron examples from literature

· The oxymoron is often used intitlesprose literary worksDead Souls", "The Unbearable Lightness of Being ", "Endless dead end», « End of Eternity"), films (" Ordinary miracle», « Eyes wide shut», « True Lies", " Dead Poets Society", "Back to the Future "),musical groups (Led Zeppelin - "lead airship", Blind Guardian - "blind guard", Orgy of the Righteous).

· Oxymorons are used to describe objects that combine opposite qualities: "a courageous woman", "a feminine boy".

· In the novel Foucault's Pendulum, the characters of Umberto Ecofantasize about a "university of comparative irrelevance" with a chair of oxymorology. As subjects of study of this department, the author cites "urban studies of nomadic tribes", "folk oligarchy", "innovative traditions", "dialectics of tautology", etc.

· in the name of the holiday« old New Year» .

It is necessary to distinguish between oxymorons and stylistic combinations of words characterizing different qualities: for example, the phrase “sweet bitterness” is an oxymoron, and “poisonous honey”, “found loss”, “sweet torment” are stylistic combinations.

Oxymoronas a stylistic device, the classics of literature were also used, and modern writers also use it. Oxymoron allows you to enhance the emotionality of artistic speech, to reveal the unity of opposites.
Often the authors of literary works and films use an oxymoron in the titles: "Dead Souls" by N.V. Gogol, "Living relics" by I.S. Turgenev, "The Living Corpse" L.N. Tolstoy, "Honest Thief" F.M. Dostoevsky, "Optimistic Tragedy" by V.V. Vishnevsky, "Rich beggar" L.N. Martynov, "Fierce Paradise" P.G. Antokolsky, "Endless Dead End" by Dmitry Galkovsky, "An Ordinary Miracle" by Evgeny Schwartz, "Eyes Wide Shut" by Arthur Schnitzler (the novel based on the famous film by Stanley Kubrick).

And Daria Dontsova has dozens of such names: "Checkered Zebra", "Quasimodo on high heels", "Fig leaf haute couture", "Cancan at the Wake", "The Invisible Man in Rhinestones", "Angel on a Broom", "Hot Love Snowman", "Winter Summer of Spring", "This Bitter Sweet Revenge", "Control Kiss", "Beloved Bastard", "Viper in Syrup", "Hocus Pocus from Vasilisa the Terrible", "Monsters from a Good Family", "Diamond muddy water", "Chinese-made Briton", "Madame Pompadour's tattered boots", "Marriageable grandfather", "Egyptian mummy's mistress".

Form start

End of form

An oxymoron is often found in poetry.

And the day has come. Gets up from the bed
Mazepa, this frail sufferer,
This dead body , just yesterday
Moaning weakly over the grave.
A. S. Pushkin

I love the magnificent nature of wilting.
A.S. Pushkin

This is, as it were, an erroneous stylistic figure that uses words with polar opposite meanings.

And what is an oxymoron

The combination of the incompatible in all the contradiction of meanings. But purely psychologically, an oxymoron helps to clarify the most confusing, inexplicable situations. Brightly colored often takes root in speech so much that people stop flinching and being surprised when they hear an oxymoron.

Examples - oxymoron accustomed

Very often and quite ordinary sound characteristics: courageous woman, feminine man, honest swindler(Mavrodi) , humane flayer(poisoned the dog in the park so that the children would not be afraid) , intelligent banditry(the policy of the United States), and as a phrase, no one is surprised at all.

Classic oxymorons

Even more often oxymorons come up. After all, what is an oxymoron? This is, among other things, an indicator of the presence of a speaker or writer. Surely everyone will smile when they hear or read this: to harm and do good, funny commemoration - they broke three button accordions. Therefore, not only the writing people are trying their best. Of course, there are great examples. An oxymoron from Gogol, from Dostoevsky, from Turgenev, from Tolstoy, from Bondarev, from Zinoviev. How can you forget" Dead Souls" or "Hot Snow", "gaping heights" or " Ordinary miracle".

Modern oxymorons

However, many modern oxymorons are born with a claim to survive: unpaid salary no one is surprised anymore. BUT elegant nudity not only amazes, but also delights with poetics. Life goes into endless dead end. Buy paperless securities! Life-giving euthanasia Russian language. Innovative tradition indestructible! " An optimistic tragedy"that guarantee and" FROM eyes wide shut". Daria Dontsova is especially creative in this regard. Almost every title of her books is an oxymoron. This is quite common in modern literature when a contradiction of meanings helps to quickly understand the meaning of the described phenomenon and remember it more firmly. And the stylistic effect is obvious: the oxymoron is even used in trainings for the emancipation of "childhood" inside an adult.Remember Chukovsky: a terrible giant - who is this? A cockroach, only.

Neologisms

The main condition for creating an oxymoron is the deliberate nature of the internal contradiction in the phrase. Virtual reality- one of the most successful oxymorons of our time. honest thief- can also apply not only to Detochkin, but also to Navalny. And fair trial! old news- an excellent definition of information in the age of high technology. Oxymoron as such is not even quite a definition, it is very close to the action. Therefore, especially gifted writers came up with a neologism: oxymoron, for example. Sounds great: reforms are an oxymoron. The main thing is that everything is clear to everyone, which means that the definition is on point. So we figured out what an oxymoron is.

Hello, dear readers of the blog site. An oxymoron is variety of figures of speech(a phrase, usually consisting of two words), which is “all so contradictory” (just like a woman), which takes it to the quick. No, really. In oxymoron (in Russian, such a spelling is acceptable along with oxymoron - accent on the letter Y) combine seemingly incongruous qualities and essences. This is what makes these figures remarkable.

This term has Greek roots and is a compound of two again contradictory words - acute (in the sense of smart, i.e. funny) and stupid (in the sense of stupid). That is, we get some kind of witty stupidity, and if we use it worse, then this is nothing but nonsense, or nonsense (the latter is probably best suited).

So what is an oxymoron (sometimes incorrectly spelled as an axemoron in queries), if you try to define it? And this is, in fact, combination of two contrasting words(often opposite in meaning, such as "cold as fire"). Do you want examples? Yes please, as much as you want.

A little lower you will find dozens of them, but for now, for starters: “virtual reality”, “true lies” (remember such a film with Schwartz?), “flying fall” (and this is from advertising), “deafening silence”, “loud silence” , “beautiful to horror” (as an option - “terribly beautiful”), “hot ice” (hockey fans will understand), “living dead”, “silent scream”, etc. These are all examples of oxymorons, but there are more and more of them, because they are great to catch and attract attention. Why? Let's figure it out.

What is an oxymoron or why combine the incompatible?

First of all oxymoron is a way to get attention, interest, make a person surprised, stop, think ... For example, the phrase "long moment" or "complex simplicity" is somewhat discouraging, stunning (how is this even possible?), causes unusual and unexpected associations, it can even make someone smile (that's wrapped up!).

Where is the best place to use it? Well, of course, where it is required to attract attention with just a few words. Therefore, oxymorons are very common. in book titles(examples are “living corpse”, “hot ice”, “honest thief”, “eloquent silence”, “optimistic tragedy”, “end of eternity”), movie titles(bright examples are “true lies”, “ordinary miracle”, “old New Year”, “back to the future”, “there was a war tomorrow”), in advertising slogans, poems.

Our brain stumbles over these expressions, begins to process them, actively tries to imagine, the right hemisphere responsible for creativity awakens ... Literally two words excite fantasy, begin to excite the imagination ... But this is exactly what the author of the book and the director of the film need ( Yes, even the author of the advertising slogan and video) - they need to arouse your interest in their product.

I'm not talking about poets - such figures of speech add charm to poetry and make them unique.

By citing an oxymoron (two opposite and mutually exclusive concepts) in the title of a work (or poems), they ensure that both words lose their original meaning, but in the end in the head is formed something new, unprecedented, which means an enticing and provocative desire to read this book, watch a movie, and read and read poetry endlessly. Wonderful thing, isn't it?

An oxymoron is also often used to create some kind of drama - for example, "cruel kindness" or "deafening silence." No wonder they say that brevity is the sister of talent. And here it turns out very briefly (only two words) and at the same time so capaciously ... But put side by side, they often give the work an artistic brightness, because they have a strong effect of surprise and put before those who read them a logical paradox, which everyone places for himself in his own way. And that's the beauty of it...

But not only here you can find examples. Look, one word that contradicts itself is tragicomedy. Or another from the field of creativity: "a novel in verse." In general, such phrases are mostly invented by creative people, therefore, they also settle in their everyday life (for example, painters, stylists and even culinary specialists have the principle of “combining the incongruous”, and this is nothing but an oxymoron).

Advertisers, on the other hand, use oxymorons (smart nonsense, if the word is literally translated from Greek) also because such phrases are very well remembered(literally eat into the mind). And it doesn't just apply to advertising. You have probably heard the expression "dry water", which, contrary to the official name of this chemical compound with a six-story formula (fluoroketone), easily fits into your head. Or "liquid nails" - bright and most importantly understandable.

Want more examples from the great and mighty Russian language? A little lower there will be a lot of them, but nevertheless I will emphasize in a separate line historical examples, which, due to their literal perception, have become a kind of dogma, although in fact they are representatives of the oxymoron family.

In the not very distant socialist past, we considered the expression “public property” to be quite common, but, in fact, this phrase is made up of concepts that contradict each other (public means indivisible, and property means separation, isolation). Another example from the same place is “honorable duty” (in relation to military service) or a little later (in the dashing nineties) the phrase “unpaid salary” was in common use, although the word “payment” already means a completed action. In general, there are many examples.

Examples of oxymorons in Russian

As I mentioned above, there are a lot of examples of the use of this vivid figure of speech. in titles of works of art. I have already given some of them, but I will try to expand this list:

In poems, poets very often they use contradictory and paradoxical phrases to enhance the artistic brightness of their works:

And finally, I just want to bring examples of oxymorons which I like in one way or another:

1. more than half
2. scary beautiful
3. living Dead
4. sad joy
5. eloquent silence
6. liquid Nails
7. dry water
8. old New Year
9. sad laugh
10. sweet bitterness
11. heat cold
12. sweet tears
13. afterlife
14. virtual reality
15. deafening silence
16. ringing silence
17. powerful impotence
18. dull shine
19. long moment
20. original copies
21. eyes wide shut
22. true lie
23. loud silence
24. summer coat
25. possessed angel
26. sincere liar
27. impudent modesty
28. voluntary violence
29. drink to health
30. unanimous disagreement
31. benevolent enemy
32. infinite limit
33. educated boor
34. little giant
35. clever bungler
36. married bachelor
37. fiery ice
38. silent cry
39. falling up
40. fun to be sad
41. chilling ardor
42. screaming silence
43. long moment
44. complex simplicity
45. sworn friend
46. wavy surface
47. clumsy grace
48. powerful impotence
49. public secret
50. affectionate scoundrel
51. stubborn consent
52. happy pessimist
53. soft hardness
54. amorphous activist
55. hazy clarity
56. bitter happiness
57. unbearable beauty
58. unstoppable quiet
59. low skyscraper
60. swiss refugee
61. outspoken politics
62. honest politician

Do you have anything to add? Sometimes very vivid examples do not come to mind until someone prompts them. I am waiting for your examples of illogical, but such charming phrases a la oxymoron ...

Good luck to you! See you soon on the blog pages site

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Oxymoron is characterized by the intentional use of contradiction to create a stylistic effect. From a psychological point of view, an oxymoron is a way to resolve an inexplicable situation.

Examples

• An oxymoron is often used in the titles of prose literary works (“Hot Snow”, “Living Corpse”, “Dead Souls”, “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”, “Endless Dead End”, “End of Eternity”), films (“Ordinary Miracle”, “With Eyes Wide Shut", "True Lies", "Little Giant of Big Sex", "There Was a War Tomorrow", "Bad Good Man", "Adult Children", "Dead Poets Society", "Back to the Future"), musical groups ( Led Zeppelin - "lead airship", Blind Guardian - "blind guard", Orgy of the Righteous), video games (LittleBigPlanet).
• Oxymorons are used to describe objects that combine opposite qualities: "a courageous woman", "a feminine boy".
• In the novel Foucault's Pendulum, Umberto Eco's characters fantasize about a "university of comparative irrelevance" with a chair of oxymorology. As subjects of study of this department, the author cites "urban studies of nomadic tribes", "folk oligarchy", "innovative traditions", "dialectics of tautology", etc.
• In the name of the holiday "Old New Year".
• Oxymorons are often used in advertising and not always in good faith. For example, the expression "investment in the forex market" is an example of a professional oxymoron, since the private foreign exchange market by its nature cannot be an object of investment, only speculation (in the economic literature there is often an attempt to separate speculation and investment; however, there is no consensus. For more details, see article "investment").
• The very word "oxymoron" (lit. "witty-stupid") is an oxymoron. (See Recursion).

It is necessary to distinguish between oxymorons and stylistic combinations of words characterizing various qualities: for example, the phrase “sweet bitterness” is an oxymoron, and “poisonous honey”, “found loss”, “sweet torment” are stylistic combinations.

see also

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Notes

Links

• in the Literary Encyclopedia
• E. Repin, N. Repina.
• Nikolaev A. I. // Nikolaev A. I. Fundamentals of literary criticism: a textbook for students of philological specialties. - Ivanovo: LISTOS, 2011. - S. 140-147.

figures trails

An excerpt describing an oxymoron

“Many, many,” answered Rostov. - Yes, what are you gathered here for? he added. - Holiday, huh?
“The old men have gathered, on a worldly matter,” answered the peasant, moving away from him.
At this time, two women and a man in a white hat appeared on the road from the manor house, walking towards the officers.
- In my pink, mind not beating! said Ilyin, noticing Dunyasha resolutely advancing towards him.
Ours will be! Lavrushka said with a wink.
- What, my beauty, do you need? - said Ilyin, smiling.
- The princess was ordered to find out what regiment you are and your names?
- This is Count Rostov, squadron commander, and I am your obedient servant.
- Be ... se ... e ... du ... shka! sang the drunk peasant, smiling happily and looking at Ilyin, who was talking to the girl. Following Dunyasha, Alpatych approached Rostov, taking off his hat from a distance.
“I dare to disturb, your honor,” he said with deference, but with relative disdain for the youth of this officer, and putting his hand in his bosom. “My lady, the daughter of General-in-Chief Prince Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky, who died this fifteenth day, being in difficulty on the occasion of the ignorance of these persons,” he pointed to the peasants, “asks you to come in ... if you don’t mind,” Alpatych said with a sad smile, “move off a few, otherwise it’s not so convenient when ... - Alpatych pointed to two men who were rushing around him from behind, like horseflies near a horse.
- Ah! .. Alpatych ... Huh? Yakov Alpatych!.. Important! sorry for Christ. Important! Eh? .. - the men said, smiling joyfully at him. Rostov looked at the drunken old men and smiled.
“Or maybe that’s a consolation to Your Excellency?” - said Yakov Alpatych with a sedate look, pointing at the old people with his hand not in his bosom.
“No, there is little consolation here,” said Rostov, and drove off. - What's the matter? - he asked.
“I dare to report to your excellency that the rude people here do not want to let the lady out of the estate and threaten to disown the horses, so that in the morning everything is packed and her excellency cannot leave.
- Can't be! cried Rostov.
“I have the honor to report to you the real truth,” Alpatych repeated.
Rostov got off the horse and, handing it over to the orderly, went with Alpatych to the house, asking him about the details of the case. Indeed, yesterday’s offer of bread by the princess to the peasants, her explanation with Dron and with the gathering spoiled the matter so much that Dron finally handed over the keys, joined the peasants and did not appear at the request of Alpatych, and that in the morning, when the princess ordered to lay the mortgage in order to go, the peasants came out in a large crowd to the barn and sent to say that they would not let the princess out of the village, that there was an order not to be taken out, and they would unharness the horses. Alpatych went out to them, advising them, but they answered him (Karp spoke the most; Dron did not show up from the crowd) that the princess could not be released, that there was an order for that; but that let the princess remain, and they will serve her as before and obey her in everything.
At that moment, when Rostov and Ilyin galloped along the road, Princess Marya, in spite of Alpatych's dissuade, the nanny and the girls, ordered to mortgage and wanted to go; but, seeing the galloping cavalrymen, they took them for the French, the coachmen fled, and the wailing of women arose in the house.
- Father! native father! God has sent you, - tender voices said, while Rostov passed through the hall.
Princess Mary, lost and powerless, sat in the hall, while Rostov was brought in to her. She did not understand who he was, and why he was, and what would happen to her. Seeing his Russian face, and by his entrance and the first words spoken, recognizing him as a man of her circle, she looked at him with her deep and radiant gaze and began to speak in a voice that broke and trembled with excitement. Rostov immediately imagined something romantic in this meeting. “Defenseless, heartbroken girl, alone, left to the mercy of rude, rebellious men! And what a strange fate pushed me here! thought Rostov, listening to her and looking at her. - And what meekness, nobility in her features and expression! he thought as he listened to her timid story.

Oxymoron

Oxymoron

OXYMORON (Greek - “sharp stupidity”) is a term of ancient style, denoting a deliberate combination of conflicting concepts. Example: “Look, she is happy to be sad / So smartly naked” (Akhmatova). A special case of O. is formed by the figure of contradictio in adjecto, the combination of a noun with an adjective that is contrasting in meaning: "wretched luxury" (Nekrasov).
The figure of O. is characterized by an underlined inconsistency of meanings merged into one: in this O. differs both from catachresis (see), where there is no opposition of contradictory words being connected, and from antithesis (see), where there is no merging of opposing concepts.
The possibility of realizing the figure of O. and its stylistic significance are based on the traditional nature of the language, on its inherent ability to “designate only the general”. The merging of contrasting meanings is therefore perceived as an opening of a contradiction between the name of an object and its essence, between the traditional assessment of an object and its true significance, as an opening of contradictions present in the phenomenon, as a transfer of the dynamics of thinking and being. Therefore, some researchers (eg R. Meyer), not without reason, point to O.'s proximity to the paradox (see).
The presence of O. as a stylistic figure in itself, of course, does not characterize either the style or the creative method of the writer. True, attempts were made to see in the abundance of speech a typical feature of the romantic and rhetorical styles - the styles of the eras of special aggravation of social contradictions (R. Meyer). But these attempts can hardly be considered conclusive. Determining the significance of an O. for any stylistic whole is possible, of course, only by analyzing its content, its direction; only then are significant differences revealed between even verbally close O. - like the above O. Nekrasova (“wretched luxury”) and Akhmatova (“smartly naked”). Stylistics.

Literary encyclopedia. - In 11 tons; M .: publishing house of the Communist Academy, Soviet Encyclopedia, Fiction. Edited by V. M. Friche, A. V. Lunacharsky. 1929-1939 .

Oxymoron

Oxymoron (Greek ox?mo-ron - witty-silly), a stylistic device consisting in the selection of a phrase, the direct meanings of which words are logically opposed, but one of the words is metaphor and its indirect meaning does not contradict the meaning of another word.

Look, her fun to be sad,
Such smartly naked.
(A. A. Akhmatova, "Tsarskoye Selo statue")

Here epithets"fun" and "smartly" are used in a metaphorical sense.
Oxymoron, not only in literature, but also in everyday speech, is perceived as an exquisite figurative tool and therefore is often used by authors in the titles of works (“The Living Corpse” by L.N. Tolstoy, "Hot Snow" Yu. V. Bondareva).

Literature and language. Modern illustrated encyclopedia. - M.: Rosman. Under the editorship of prof. Gorkina A.P. 2006 .

Synonyms:

See what "Oxymoron" is in other dictionaries:

oxymoron- (wrong oxymoron and oxymoron) ... Dictionary of pronunciation and stress difficulties in modern Russian

- [gr. oxymoron letters. witty stupid] philol. a figure of speech consisting in the combination of two antonymous concepts, two words that contradict each other in meaning (for example, “old boy”, “white crow”, “eloquent silence”). Wed CATAHRESIS.… … Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

See Oxymoron... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Exist., number of synonyms: 3 pun (6) oxymoron (7) humor (32) ASIS Synonym Dictionary ... Synonym dictionary

Oxymoron, oxymoron (other Greek οξύμωρον “smart stupidity”) is a stylistic figure or a stylistic mistake a combination of words with the opposite meaning (that is, a combination of incongruous). An oxymoron is characterized by intentional ... ... Wikipedia

oxymoron- I. OXYMORON, OXYMORON a, m. oxymorone m. gr. oxymoron witty stupid. A stylistic turn that combines semantically contrasting words that create an unexpected semantic unity, for example: a living corpse, wretched luxury. SIS 1985. From ... Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language

See Oxymoron. * * * Oxymoron, see Oxymoron. * * * OXYMORON OXYMORON, see Oxymoron (see OXYMORON) ... encyclopedic Dictionary

oxymoron- (from the Greek oxymoron letters: witty stupid) a stylistic figure, a combination of words that are opposite in meaning. Rubric: language. Visual expressive means Synonym: oxymoron Genus: antithesis Other associative connections: antonyms ... Terminological dictionary-thesaurus on literary criticism

oxymoron, oxymoron, oxymoron, oxymoron, oxymoron, oxymoron, oxymoron, oxymoron, oxymoron, oxymoron, oxymoron, oxymoron (