different between oxymoron vs hyperbole
oxymoron
English
Etymology
First attested in the 17th century, noun use of 5th century Latin oxym?rum (adj), neut. nom. form of oxym?rus (adj), from Ancient Greek ???????? (oxúm?ros), compound of ???? (oxús, “sharp, keen, pointed”) (English oxy-, as in oxygen) + ????? (m?rós, “dull, stupid, foolish”) (English moron (“stupid person”)). Literally "sharp-dull", "keen-stupid", or "pointed-foolish" – itself an oxymoron, hence autological; compare sophomore (literally “wise fool”), influenced by similar analysis. The compound form ???????? (oxúm?ron) is not found in the extant Ancient Greek sources.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /?ks??m????n/
- (US) enPR: äk-s?-môr?-än, äk-s?-môr?-än, IPA(key): /??ksi?m???n/, /?ks??m???n/
Noun
oxymoron (plural oxymorons or oxymora)
- (rhetoric) A figure of speech in which two words or phrases with opposing meanings are used together intentionally for effect.
- 1996, John Sinclair, "Culture and Trade: Some Theoretical and Practical Considerations", in Emile G. McAnany, Kenton T. Wilkinson (eds.), Mass Media and Free Trade: NAFTA and the Cultural Industries, University of Texas Press
- For Theodor Adorno and his colleagues at the Frankfurt School who coined the term, "culture industry" was an oxymoron, intended to set up a critical contrast between the exploitative, repetitive mode of industrial mass production under capitalism and the associations of transformative power and aesthetico-moral transcendence that the concept of culture carried in the 1940s, when it still meant "high" culture.
- 1996, John Sinclair, "Culture and Trade: Some Theoretical and Practical Considerations", in Emile G. McAnany, Kenton T. Wilkinson (eds.), Mass Media and Free Trade: NAFTA and the Cultural Industries, University of Texas Press
- (loosely, sometimes proscribed) A contradiction in terms.
Usage notes
- Historically, an oxymoron was "a paradox with a point", or "pointedly foolish: a witty saying, the more pointed from being paradoxical or seemingly absurd" at first glance. Its deliberate purpose was to underscore a point or to draw attention to a concealed point. The common vernacular use of oxymoron as simply a contradiction in terms is considered incorrect by some speakers and writers, and is perhaps best avoided in certain contexts.
Antonyms
- pleonasm, redundancy
Derived terms
- oxymoronic
- oxymoronically
- oxymoronicity
- oxymoronicness
Related terms
Translations
See also
- Category:English oxymorons
- contranym
References
Further reading
- Oxymoron on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- Lee’s Complete Oxymoron List, with discussion of classification (archive)
oxymoron From the web:
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hyperbole
English
Etymology
From Latin hyperbol?, from Ancient Greek ???????? (huperbol?, “excess, exaggeration”), from ???? (hupér, “above”) + ????? (báll?, “I throw”). Doublet of hyperbola.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ha??p??b?li/
- Homophones: hyperbolae
Noun
hyperbole (countable and uncountable, plural hyperboles)
- (uncountable, rhetoric, literature) Deliberate or unintentional overstatement, particularly extreme overstatement.
- 1837, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Legends of the Province House
- The great staircase, however, may be termed, without much hyperbole, a feature of grandeur and magnificence.
- c. 1910, Theodore Roosevelt, Productive Scholarship
- Of course the hymn has come to us from somewhere else, but I do not know from where; and the average native of our village firmly believes that it is indigenous to our own soil—which it can not be, unless it deals in hyperbole, for the nearest approach to a river in our neighborhood is the village pond.
- 1987, Donald Trump, Tony Schwartz, The Art of the Deal, p. 58.
- The final key to the way I promote is bravado. I play to people's fantasies. ..People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular. I call it truthful hyperbole. It's an innocent form of exaggeration—and a very effective form of promotion.
- 2001, Tom Bentley, Daniel Stedman Jones, The Moral Universe
- The perennial problem, especially for the BBC, has been to reconcile the hyperbole-driven agenda of newspapers with the requirement of balance, which is crucial to the public service remit.
- 1837, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Legends of the Province House
- (countable) An instance or example of such overstatement.
- 1843, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The Gates of Somnauth
- The honourable gentleman forces us to hear a good deal of this detestable rhetoric; and then he asks why, if the secretaries of the Nizam and the King of Oude use all these tropes and hyperboles, Lord Ellenborough should not indulge in the same sort of eloquence?
- 1843, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The Gates of Somnauth
- (countable, obsolete) A hyperbola.
Synonyms
- (rhetoric): overstatement, exaggeration, auxesis
Antonyms
- (rhetoric): See understatement
Derived terms
- hyperbolic
Related terms
- hyperbola
Translations
See also
- adynaton
French
Etymology
From Latin hyperbole, from Ancient Greek ???????? (huperbol?, “excess, exaggeration”), from ??? (hupé, “above”) + ????? (báll?, “I throw”).
Pronunciation
- (mute h) IPA(key): /i.p??.b?l/
- Homophone: hyperboles
- Hyphenation: hy?per?bole
Noun
hyperbole f (plural hyperboles)
- (rhetoric) hyperbole
- (geometry) hyperbola
Related terms
- hyperbolique
Descendants
- ? Turkish: hiperbol
Further reading
- “hyperbole” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Latin
Etymology
From Ancient Greek ???????? (huperbol?, “excess, exaggeration”), from ??? (hupé, “above”) + ????? (báll?, “I throw”).
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /hy?per.bo.le?/, [h??p?rb???e?]
- (Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /i?per.bo.le/, [i?p?rb?l?]
Noun
hyperbol? f (genitive hyperbol?s); first declension
- exaggeration; hyperbole
- ablative singular of hyperbol?
- vocative singular of hyperbol?
Declension
First-declension noun (Greek-type).
References
- hyperbole in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- hyperbole in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
hyperbole From the web:
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