Oxymorons – IOTW Report

Oxymorons

Thursday, 12 November 2015, 16:41 BFH Uncategorized 61

A reader, Sam S., sent a tip for a story about Wildlife Management, saying it was one of his favorite oxymorons.

He added a few more: Act Naturally, Constant Change.

It got me thinking.

Here are some I enjoy:

Larger half (It wasn’t half, then, was it?)

Found missing (You hear this on Forensic Files. “A knock on the door went unanswered. The old woman was found missing.”)

Ill health (Wouldn’t, “he’s ill,” cover it?)

Original copy (How smart are lawyers when they ask for original copies?)

Soft Rock (Cracks me up, every time.)

Unbiased opinion (Opinions are based on bias, no?)

And then you have the DC oxymorons:

Anti-missile missile  (Wouldn’t it explode the moment you made it?)

Continuing resolution (The resolution, the end, will go on and on.)

Open border (It’s not a border, then, is it?)

Zero deficit  (Must I explain this one?)

 

 

 

 

61 Comments on Oxymorons

  9. As for those braille keypads and tags on the drive-through ATMs, theoretically you might have a blind person in the back seat on the driver’s side. My guess, though, is that you could count the number of times that that has happened since the advent of drive-through ATMs on the fingers of one mutilated hand.

  12. A lot of these are simply contradictions in terms. An oxymoron is, according to my OED:

    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. (Now often loosely or erroneously used as if merely = a contradiction in terms, an incongruous conjunction.)

    [/pedant]

    Nevertheless, they are fun!

  27. I’ve made fun of the keypads for years. Turns out the makers of the ATMs need to put braille on walk up machines, so they just put it on all machines because technically a drive through machine could be placed at a walk up location.

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