Oxymorons

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: Wolfgang
Date: 18 Apr 02 - 12:36 PM

the 'only choice'
found missing
idiot savant
dicorce court (ouch)
science fiction
and to end on a musical note:
soft rock
Young Tradition

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Apr 02 - 01:06 PM

Sailboat racing
Behavioral science
Business ethics

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: michaelr
Date: 18 Apr 02 - 08:15 PM

Industrial park!

In order to determine whetherv a statement is meant ironically or seriously (if it's not OBVIOUSLY one or the other), one must have at least some knowledge of the speaker. That can be difficult when chatting on the web with people in other hemispheres.
(Sweeping Generalization Alert:) I think that Americans tend to assume that people mean what they say, unless clued otherwise, while British folks (more skeptical, I guess) assume everyone is "taking a piss".

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: kendall
Date: 18 Apr 02 - 08:20 PM

Some of those sailboats, especially the catamarans will really haul ass.

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: DonD
Date: 18 Apr 02 - 09:18 PM

Asm an elderly gebtleman with an enlarged prostate, may I ask -- isn't the expression, "taking the piss"?

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 18 Apr 02 - 11:58 PM

I've heard the "divided by a common language" line attributed to George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde. Take your pick.

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: GUEST,DrWord
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 01:35 AM

First Annual
This one is good ...

DrWord@public terminal

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: Trevor
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 04:32 AM

How about 'going round the square'?

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: Joe in the'pool
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 05:02 AM

'Don't Fire' could this now be interpreted as an oxymoron when heard by American Airforce pilots, when sighting 'Friendly' Canadians (is this another one!)

No offence meant to Canadians a very friendly bunch of people..

Joe

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 05:36 AM

Definite probability
Full vacuum cleaner
Opaque window
(of Australia) Island Continent
Open secret

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: Banjer
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 05:52 AM

Having read through this thread I am dismayed and saddened that NO ONE has yet listed one of the most obvious music related oxymnorons:

Banjo Tuning

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 08:02 AM

I wonder if "friendly fire" might owe anything to John Betjeman:

"Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough! It isn't fit for humans now..."

And he wasn't exactly being ironic, possibly a bit tongue in cheek, since he didn't actually want the bombs dropped on the place, just wished people would wake up to what they had created, and pull it down and make it better.

Nobody has mentioned "British Justice" which has very often been classed as an oxymoron.

And I think alongside Sorchas's "Non Working Mom" I might put "Women's Liberation."

Or there's Morris Dancing...

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: SharonA
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 10:11 AM

Wise ass
'NSYNC concert
Voice mail

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: Amos
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 10:51 AM

Friendly fire is only apparently oxymoronic, when mis-parsed; the adjective "friendly" has a different meaning (side of origin) than the common one (show of affection or alliance).

Obviously in the second sense NO fire is friendly.

A

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 11:03 AM

Well, if you were being strictly logical, I suppose you could say that fire directed on the enemy when you were under attack could well be described as friendly.

I don't think a phrase can be "apparently oxymoronic" - the appearance is surely what counts in this kind of phrase.

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: Amos
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 11:18 AM

Oh, okay, McGrath -- pardon my arrant pedantry, up with which I will now put where the sun don't shine!! :>))

A

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: GUEST,Nerd
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 02:16 PM

I think there's plenty of irony in the USA. But then I grew up in New York City, so my experience may not be typical. I do think that people in North America have no very clear idea of what irony is. For example, Alanis Morrisette's song "isn't it ironic?" in fact provides examples of coincidence, not irony.

Oxymora:

Government worker (or government job) working holiday Home Depot High school senior sophomoric humor

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: DMcG
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 02:22 PM

There is a nursery rhyme that I can't quite remember which includes the directions

Straight down the crooked road
And all round the square.

(We start 'em young on oxymrons here)

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: Hrothgar
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 06:42 PM

Boxing ring.

Literate journalist.

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: van lingle
Date: 19 Apr 02 - 07:10 PM

This thread is awful good.

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 06:28 AM

some of those posting here are "pretty ugly"

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: GUEST,emily b
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 08:22 AM

Diversified Specialists! This is actually the name of a business here. Emily

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: van lingle
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 08:35 AM

No offense, Nigel but your assessment seems fairly unjust. *g*

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: Ebbie
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 12:35 PM

New and Improved!

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 04:10 PM

Modern History

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 04:36 PM

clean dirt english cuisine american justice republican party

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: van lingle
Date: 20 Apr 02 - 08:04 PM

"President Bush"

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: GUEST,Chris
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 08:27 AM

Um--casual sex?

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 01:16 PM

Guest,Chris: is that on oxymoron or an offer ?

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: GUEST,Peter from Essex
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 04:15 PM

A friend of mine walked into the wrong room at a venue and really did find himself in the AGM of an anarchist organisation.

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 21 Apr 02 - 10:52 PM

GUEST,Peter from Essex -- Now, THAT'S an oxymoron!!!!!!

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: mousethief
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 05:26 PM

Coincidences can't be ironic?

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: GUEST,Slickerbill
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 05:38 PM

"Guest Host", "raised to the ground"

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: mousethief
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 05:49 PM

free love
secular saint
loyal opposition
ice cream
compassionate conservatism
worldly innocence
good beer
ovo-lacto-vegetarian
self-righteous
sweet wine
monetary consideration
guilt complex
plastic glass
standard exemption
total partiality
steel wool
cotton wool
sophomore
preexisting
antebellum
fat-free sour cream
dairy-free creamer
positive feedback

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: Big John
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 09:40 PM

The author of this thread has pulled the wool across my eyes/ By using clever diction writing words of such a size/ In Ireland we have oxen and morons by the score/ But to breed an oxymoron it was never done before.// Is this some sort of Mudcat crossbred from a horse and cow/ Or a mule with horns and udder, will someone tell me now?/ Or some such other animal defying Nature's laws/ Or just a contradiction in a verbal sort of clause?// Jeez, I'd love to be as clever as these educated Yanks /Then I'd fill this space with double meaning words and leave no blanks/ But I'm going to have to finish with all this stupid talk/ It's time to take my little oxymoron for a walk.

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: Wincing Devil
Date: 13 Jun 02 - 01:59 PM

Raised to the ground should be spelled "razed" as in what some men do to their face in the morning.

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: Chicken Charlie
Date: 13 Jun 02 - 04:42 PM

Accordion music Bible scholar [IMO, of course]

Homeless shelter turtle race

CC

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: tremodt
Date: 13 Jun 02 - 11:06 PM

Park way

drive way

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: An Pluiméir Ceolmhar
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 06:49 AM

Definitive version?

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: Sir Roger de Beverley
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 10:55 AM

One I came across recently that only I thought fitted the definition was "highly intelligent fell runner"

R

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: mousethief
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 12:00 PM

That's just silly, Chicken Charlie. One needn't believe something is true to acknowledge that people study it in a scholarly way. I don't believe in the Roman pantheon, but I acknowledge that there are scholars in Roman Mythology.

Alex

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 02:41 PM

English summer.

Pete

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: Dead Horse
Date: 15 Jun 02 - 02:00 AM

Re baseball - World Series
Shanty Singer
Open Prison
Vacant Expression
Smart Bomb (unless it explodes and makes you sting slightly) ....(on my starting blocks and ready to run for cover)...Ladies Morris

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: brid widder
Date: 15 Jun 02 - 07:41 AM

happily married!

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: Shields Folk
Date: 15 Jun 02 - 08:22 AM

stupid woman!

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: Shields Folk
Date: 15 Jun 02 - 08:23 AM

no sorry, thats a double negative!

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: Wincing Devil
Date: 17 Jun 02 - 04:52 PM

Best Oxymoron So Far!:

Religious Technology

Lawdie! Save us from Helena Korbin!

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: Big John
Date: 17 Jun 02 - 09:20 PM

Iodine Tablets. The GOVERNMENT is sending a FREE packet of Iodine Tablets to every household in Ireland within the next week. Allellluuuiaaa Brethern, we are SAVED. Apparently, if an atomic bomb drops on you, there's no problem - you just rush home, swallow one of these and that's it.

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: Wincing Devil
Date: 18 Jun 02 - 12:47 AM

Iodine Tablets...

How's that Oxymoronic? Moronic maybe...

Subject: RE: Oxymorons
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 18 Jun 02 - 03:28 AM

Big John -- That poem is wonderful. Shame on you! *BG*