Is it possible to talk about oxymorons without being bombarded with all the joke ones

And no I do not like calling them oxymora.

I tried to teach about oxymorons, when I was teaching in Japan.
The other teachers just bombarded me with the ‘joke’ oxymorons like ‘Microsoft works’ and ‘airline food’. I never actually found these funny.
I just wanted a list of them. I like ones like
-deafening silence
-cruel kindness
-mindless thinking
which I think say something interesting.

No. It is impossible.

Case in point: most of those joke ones aren’t actually oxymorons! They’re “contradictions in terms”. An oxymoron are two terms whose meanings are different/opposite in the context of the sentence. So ‘jumbo shrimp’ isn’t one because “shrimp” in this context isn’t being used as an adjective to mean “small”. And ‘pretty ugly’ isn’t one because “pretty” doesn’t mean “beautiful” in this context.

Also, neither of those can be considered oxymorons because the juxtaposition isn’t intentional for literary effect. Gah! It annoys me to no end to hear people say “heh heh: military intelligence is an oxymoron, you know.”

(As a converse rule to the one you propose: the really popular false oxymorons can’t be uttered without someone in the crowd shouting “Hey! That’s an oxymoron!”)

And when people call non-linguistic objects “oxymorons,” that really frosts my pumpkin (e.g. “The character of Hamlet is an oxymoron because he behaves so differently at different times.”)

And as further proof that it’s impossible to discuss them without citing all the bad ones, here’s wiki’s list of fake ones:
civil libertarian
anecdotal evidence
inductive logic
Larger half
Pretty ugly
wicked nice
deafening silence
Jumbo shrimp

No, they’re not.

Sorry, nothing to add other than:
Justice Scalia

No argument there.

One of the more abstruse (but funny IMO) of the “little moron” jokes popular when I was a kid:

The little moron fell into a vat of perchlorate bleach, which of course removes yellowing, etc., by intense oxidizing.

Thanks to the strong bleaching effect, he came out intensely bright. But for the same reason he was, of course, an oxymoron.

Man, if that’s the kinda joke you and your friends were telling, you must have had a wierd childhood, poly! :smiley:

OK, Randy, you give a long list of terms that aren’t really oxymorons. How 'bout a list of what you define as oxymorons?

Is this the right room for an argument?
-Monty Python

IANA poet, but Shakespeare was. Here are some oldies-but-goodies:

tragical mirth (MSND)
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health (R&J)
sweet sorrow (R&J)
cruel kindness (Ham)
dearest enemy (HIV)
fearful bravery (JC)
pleasing punishment (CoE)

Of course, context is important for determination of oxymorons, and I’m not providing context. So you’ll have to trust me on that count. People were much more enthralled by the idea of oxymoron in Elizabethan times, so their use was much more common.

Here are a few more contemporary ones:

living dead
bittersweet
tough love
Hell’s Angels
man-child
cold comfort (although this may be Shakespeare too …)

The classic joke oxymoron is “military intelligence”, which is often given as an example of an oxymoron. No, it’s an example of a joke. :rolleyes:

No, it’s not possible, especially here, because there are always some wiseasses.

Jumbo shrimp?

What do you want to say about oxymorons, anyway? It’s not a topic that really requires a lot of debate.

“Oxymoron analysis”, there’s one for you.

Fresh Frozen Jumbo Shrimp” But “jumbo shrimp” is kind of weak as **Randy Seltzer **pointed out.

Bittersweet is a bit weak as well; things can genuinely be bitter and sweet at the same time; the one doesn’t negate the other.

As a figure of speech, I think the oxymoron is pretty ugly, and anyone who uses one is a little big for his boots.

How about “Miracle of Nature”?

I thought a miracle is something that is impossible in nature and can only happen through divine intervention.

A contradictory oxymoron is a pleonasm. :slight_smile:

Or perhaps a tautology…

I hear Fresh Frozen Jumbo Shrimp go well with Very Young Small Early Peas. Actually, come to think of it, now I’m getting hungry…