Oxy Words: “oxymora” to “paroxysm”,
Part 2 of 2
Words that include: oxy-, -oxia, -oxic (Greek: sharp, acute, pointed, keen; sour, acid, acidic, pungent).
oxymora (plural):
Sharp, keen plus foolish, dull; “pointedly foolish” pronounced [ahk" si MOHR uh].
“Oxymoronology” by Richard Lederer
Sometimes when the word “oxymoron” is used, someone will exclaim, “Good grief! What is an oxymoron? Is it a dumb bovine?” No, far from it.
An oxymoron is a figure of speech in which two incongruous, contradictory terms are yoked together in a small space. In fact, “good grief” is an oxymoron.
Even the word oxymoron is itself oxymoronic because it is formed from two Greek roots of opposite meanings: oxys, “sharp, keen”, and moros, “dull, foolish”, the same root that gives us the word moron.
Richard Lederer divided oxymora into several categories:
- Single-word oxymora composed of dependent morphemes:
sophomore (wise fool)
pianoforte (soft loud)
preposterous (before after)
superette (big small)
- Single-word oxymora composed of independent morphemes:
spendthrift
bridegroom
bittersweet
ballpoint
speechwriting
firewater
someone
- Logological oxymora:
nook (joins the opposing words no and ok)
noyes (joins the opposing words no and yes)
- Natural oxymora (considered “natural” because the perception of these duos as oxymora is relatively direct and effortless and does not depend on plays on words or personal values):
inside out
student teacher
working vacation
small fortune
open secret
sight unseen
loyal opposition
idiot savant
light heavyweight
original copy
final draft
random order
negative growth
elevated subway
mobile home
benign neglect
benevolent despot
fresh frozen
recorded live
one-man band
old boy
living end
- Punning oxymora (punning is the compacting of two meanings into a verbal space that they do not occupy in ordinary discourse):
jumble shrimp
flat busted
even odds
baby grand
female jock
death benefit
- Conversion puns (oxymoronic pairs that rely on the coexistence of two parts of speech for the same word):
press release
kickstand
divorce court
building wrecking
white rose
- Dead metaphors (a word becomes oxymoronic when it is set alongside another word that collides with its earlier meaning):
awful(ly) good
terribly good
damned good
many fewer
barely clothed
clearly obfuscating
far nearer
growing small
hardly easy
a little big
- Crafted oxymora (an apparent sense of conscious contrivance and crafting):
Little Giant (for Stephen Douglas)
confidently scared
same difference
accidentally on purpose
global village
lead balloon (It went over like a lead balloon)
dull roar (Keep it down to a dull roar)
old news
death benefit
- Literary oxymora:
hateful good (Geoffry Chaucer)
proud humility (Herbert Spenser)
melancholy merriment (George Gordon Byron)
sweet sorrow (William Shakespeare)
darkness visible (John Milton)
scalding coolness (Ernest Miller Hemingway)
falsely true (Alfred Tennyson)
- Doublespeak oxymora (language that avoids or shifts responsibility or is at variance with its real or purported meaning):
genuine imitation
real counterfeit [diamonds]
new and improved (can anything be both?)
terminal living
mandatory option
semiboneless
- Opinion oxymora (the injection of personal values and editorializing):
military intelligence
non-working mother
young Republican
war games
peacekeeper missile
business ethics
student athlete
educational television
postal service
airline food
rock music
- Technological oxymora:
paper table-cloths
green blackboards (AKA: “chalk boards”)
metal wood
plastic silverware (glasses, wood)
Should oxymoronic strings, like the double-play “fresh frozen jumbo shrimp”, be accorded special mention? What about triple plays in which all three words interact; such as, “permanent guest host”?
While the forms that oxymora assume are far from infinite, they are intriguingly varied. The boundaries separating one category from another blur and shift even as we draw them, but the lines can be useful. As all taxonomists should know, it is not always easy to know where the front of a horse ends and the back begins, but we usually can perceive the difference between a horse’s head and a horse’s rear end.
— Source Lederer, Richard. “Oxymoronology.”
Word Ways, Vol. 23, No. 2; May 1990, pp. 102-105.
You may find extensive lists of oxymora with a simple click.
oxymoron (singular):
Sharp, keen plus foolish, dull; pronounced [ahk" si MOH rahn], from Greek, oxy-, “point, sharp” and moron, “foolish”]. A rhetorical figure by which contradictory or incongruous terms are conjoined so as to give point to the statement or expression; an expression, in its superficial or literal meaning self-contradictory or absurd, but involving a point.
A well-known example of literary oxymora is Tennyson’s “Lancelot and Elaine”: The shackles of an old love straiten’d him
His honour rooted in dishonour stood,
and faith unfaithful kept him falsely true.
oxymoronic:
Suggestive of oxymoron; incongruous, self-contradictory.
oxyntic:
Producing or secreting acid; used primarily in reference to the parietal cells of the stomach.
oxyopia, oxyblepsia:
Abnormal acuteness or sharpness of sight.
oxyopter:
The reciprocal of the visual angle, used as a measure of visual acuity.
oxyosmia:
An abnormal acuteness of the sense of smell; oxyosphresia
oxyospheresia:
Excessive, or abnormal, acuteness of the sense of smell.
oxypathia, oxypathy:
1. Unusual acuity of sensation.
2. An acute condition.
3. A condition in which the body is unable to eliminate unoxidizable acids, which combine with fixed alkalies of the tissues and harm the organism.
oxyperitoneum:
The introduction of oxygen into the peritoneal cavity.
oxypetalous:
Having sharply pointed petals.
oxyphil, oxyphilic, oxyphilia, oxyphilous:
1. Acid-loving, applied to certain white blood-corpuscles or other cells having an affinity for acid dyes.
2. In botany, living or thriving in acidic soil, acid loving.
3. Staining readily with acid dyes.
oxyphobe:
Unable to tolerate soil acidity.
oxyphobia, oxyphobous:
In botany, living or thriving in alkaline soil; not tolerant of acidic conditions.
oxyphonia, oxyphony:
Excessive acuteness or shrillness of the voice.
oxyphyllous:
Having pointed leaves.
oxyphyte, oxyphytic:
In botany, a plant that grows in an acidic environment.
oxyrhine, oxyrhinous:
1. Sharp-nosed, sharp-snouted.
2. Possessing an acute sense of smell.
oxyrhynchous:
Sharp-snouted; sharp billed.
oxysphere:
1. The lithosphere or the solid, outer layer of the earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle.
2. The geosphere or the combination of the earth’s lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere.
oxytaxis:
A directed response of a motile organism to an oxygen stimulus; oxytactic.
oxythymous:
Quick-tempered; easily riled or angered.
oxytocic:
1. Referring to or characterized by rapid labor.
2. An agent that hastens childbirth by stimulating contractions of the myometrium.
oxytocin:
1. A hormone produced by the hypothalamus that is stored and released by the pituitary gland. It causes contractions of the uterus and the release of milk from the mammary glands.
2. A smooth muscle contraction-stimulating hormone found in the neurohypophysis.
oxytropic:
An orientation response to an acid stimulus.
oxytropism:
An orientation response to an oxygen gradient stimulus.
oxyuricide:
An agent that destroys pinworms.
oxyurous:
Having a pointed tail.
paroxysm, paroxysmal:
1. An increase of the acuteness or severity of a disease, usually recurring periodically in its course; a violent temporary access of disease; a fit.
2. A violent access of action or emotion; a fit, convulsion (e.g. of laughter, excitement, rage, terror, etc.; also said of physical processes, as earthquakes or volcanic eruptions).
3. Violent or convulsive physical action.
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