oxy-, -oxia, -oxic

(Greek: sharp, acute, pointed, keen; sour, acid, acidic, pungent)


oxygon
Having acute angles; acute-angled.
oxyhemoglobin
A familiar protein is the one in red blood corpuscles that combines with oxygen in the lungs and carries it to the cells of the tissues, where it gives it up again. When it combines with oxygen, it becomes oxyhemoglobin.
oxyhemoglobinometer
An apparatus for measurement of the amount of oxygen in the blood.
oxyhydrocephalus
A type of hydrocephalus in which the head has a pointed shape.
oxyhydrogen
Consisting of a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen.
oxylalia
Fast speech, usually excessively fast.
oxylophilous, oxylophile, oxylophily
In biology, dwelling and thriving in humus or humus-rich habitats.
oxylophyte, oxylophytic
A plant growing in a humus-rich habitat.
oxyluminescence
Luminescence caused by oxidation.
oxymel
A medicinal drink or syrup compounded of vinegar and honey, sometimes with other ingredients.
oxymora (pl)
Sharp, keen plus foolish, dull; "pointedly foolish" pronounced [ahk" si MOHR uh].

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 has 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 at this link.

oxymoron (s)
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.

Cross references of word families that are related directly, or indirectly, to: "sour, sharp": acerb-; aceto-; acid-; acies- (not "sour"); acuto- (not "sour"); pung- (not "sour").


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