What are your favourite oxymorons?

Military Intelligence

Free Trade Agreement

Sports Personality

Online Community

Gaming Culture

Do you want actual oxymorons or sarky comments?

none of those are oxymorons?

  On 2/6/2011 at 1:21 AM, chenGOD said:

none of those are oxymorons?

yeah thats what i was thinking and then i was double-guessing myself as to what an oxymoron is.

According to wikipedia..

An oxymoron (plural oxymorons or oxymora) (from Greek ὀξύμωρον, "sharp dull") is a figure of speech that combines contradictory terms.

some examples

* Dark light

* Living dead

* Noisy silence

* New Classic

* Open secret (supposedly a secret but it has leaked)

* Successful failure

* Vintage Modern

* Virtual reality

so yeah I guess none of the examples that are mentioned in the OP are oxymorons

We Are The Music Makers

intelligent religious person

jumbo shrimp

IDM

Claustrophobic agoraphobic.

This thread is an aborted faetus.

  On 2/6/2011 at 12:30 AM, analogue wings said:

Military Intelligence

 

 

Free Trade Agreement

 

 

Sports Personality

 

 

Online Community

 

 

Gaming Culture

interesting post

stillborn grandad

glorious massacre

tasty broccoli

  On 2/6/2011 at 1:23 AM, beatfanatic said:

  On 2/6/2011 at 1:21 AM, chenGOD said:

none of those are oxymorons?

 

yeah thats what i was thinking and then i was double-guessing myself as to what an oxymoron is.

 

According to wikipedia..

An oxymoron (plural oxymorons or oxymora) (from Greek ὀξύμωρον, "sharp dull") is a figure of speech that combines contradictory terms.

yes . an oxymoron is the result of the chemical(atomic) reaction between two words that come up with a set of default meaning features (clichés) and that are inherently put on the table in an out-of-context fashion. Whether a feature is default or not depends on cultural parameters, and when it is, it is said to belong, to be encoded by a language, a lect, at several possible levels (dialect, sociolect, idiolect (one guy'specific language)). Consequently, whether a sequence is an oxymoron or not depends on the way you interpret it (through your own views or through someone else's).

When your put two conflicting words in the same context, the cognitive dissonance that results has to be resolved. Some of the meaning features involved in the conflict have to be kicked out of the house : it happens when they are virtualized, when you reckon a feature is pertinent in the considered language but is not useful in the current context. The sequence "white crow" says that this is a crow and it's white, but it also says you should expect it to be black and this very idea participates in the constitution of another dissonance, at a higher level, that makes the text more interesting.

Whatever.

Military Intelligence

I think we a have a polysemy case here (smart/bright/clever vs information gathering). Anyway, i think the fact that soldiers are violent jerks is a very common cliché.

Online community.

When you're online, you're alone with your computer.

Free trade agreement.

This is how i understand it : free trade is never free as it obeys the market's natural laws.

Gaming Culture

unpleasant cock

analogue wings

You are an oxymoron in yourself

planefish

boatbird

low rise

good Twilight film/book

catfish

monopoly

inflammable

Safety Dance

We all know there is no such thing as a truly safe dance

Microsoft Works

"Favourite Oxymoron"

Non Virgin World of Warcraft Player.