Talk:Oxymoron/Archive 2

Pronounciation

 * The word is widely pronounced as oxy/moron. However, it's classical Greek origins suggest it should be pronounced as ozy/moron or ozoo/moron. The 2nd and 3rd letters are Zi and Upsilon. Zi is generally like a short Z, and Upsilon is like a short Y or, OO ( e.g. look).27.33.245.29 (talk) 02:43, 19 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Ancient Greek Ξ ξ was pronounced "ks" everywhere including at the beginnings of words. Anthony Appleyard (talk) 16:11, 3 September 2015 (UTC)
 * The only question as to pronunciation ought to be one of intonation: whether (as is commonly done) the word ought to be rendered vocally as if it were spelt ocksy mōron; or if, using the stress pattern typical of trisyllabic words of Greek origin, it ought instead to be emphasised ock sih meron.
 * Nuttyskin (talk) 09:27, 22 July 2023 (UTC)

Plural, redux
The decade or so old discussion at the top of this page reaches no clear conclusion other, perhaps, than that "oxymora" is a pedanticism. Which is how it appears in this article, as some weird pedantry. Oxymorons should be the plural (as I see it used often on this very talk page). Huw Powell (talk) 02:25, 6 July 2015 (UTC)

I agree that it is obvious that "oxymorons" is the more frequently used plural. This does not automatically make "oxymora" a "pedanticism". It is just the lesser used option, judging from google books the ratio is roughly 10:1. It is fair to request that "oxymorons" should be used in the article, but there is no grounds for explicitly deprecating use of "oxymora". Just state that it is more rarely seen. --dab (𒁳) 07:44, 7 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Any more than aquaria ought to be deprecated in favour of aquariums, which is certainly encountered more often, especially in speech; even though -aria is acknowledged to be the correct plural.
 * Nuttyskin (talk) 09:30, 22 July 2023 (UTC)

"Joke oxymorons"
I was not aware of this problem, but it appears to be the case that the use of "X is an oxymoron" jokes are threatening to overwhelm the original meaning of the term, at least in American usage. This is a WP:RECENTISM. We can cover it, but the focus of the article should remain on the rhetorical figure.

There is a book called Little House of Oxymorons: with commentaries (2010) which simply consists of a list of such "oxymoron jokes". The joke is always in the claim that "X is an oxymoron, LOL" and never in the actual use of an oxymoron. They are poor jokes, imho, while actual oxymorons take wit, but the publication of this thing in print at least allows us to pinpoint (and date) the problem.

Now, Wills (2010) justly "castigates" Buckley for the "intelligent liberal" joke: it is a cheap shot, "your worldview is different from mine, therefore you must be stupid, LOL". However, I have by doubts that Buckley is really to blame for this development. It may also be that he simply gave as good as he got, and that the trend has a deeper origin. I just came across this interesting specimen: John D. Brey, Tautological Oxymorons: Deconstructing Scientific Materialism: An Onto-Theological Approach (2002). This appears to be a book-length and rather ...eloquent... exercise in exactly the same joke: "I disagree with your worldview, therefore all I am hearing from you are oxymorons, LOL, LOL". Except it isn't quite clear that Brey thinks he is making a joke; he seems to be doing some weird kind of combination of quantum woo, metaphysics and cargo-cult postmodernism; when I saw the title I thought that "tautological oxymoron" is an elaborate joke on the autological nature of the word oxymoron. But scanning the book it seems that he is just using the term unironically because he thinks it makes sense. --dab (𒁳) 08:10, 7 April 2017 (UTC)

Tolkien
..Tolkien ... the Low German equivalent of dull-keen (High German toll-kühn)

That's nonsense / very misleading. English "dull" means boring, non-sparkly, and Low German "doll" (German "toll") means awesome, crazy. Pretty sure Tolkien knew his German, and didn't fall for this false friend. --Maxus96 (talk) 20:12, 1 October 2020 (UTC)