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* [[Rhetoric]]. A figure of speech in which a pair of opposed or markedly contradictory terms are placed in conjunction for emphasis.
[1640 E. REYNOLDS Treat. Passions xvii. 186 It was a bold but true {olenis}{xi}{guacu}{mu}{omega}{rho}{omicron}{nu} of Seneca. Mortibus vivimus.] 1656 J. SMITH Myst. Rhetorique 121 '''Oxymoron''', {olenis}{xi}{guacu}{mu}{omega}{rho}{omicron}{nu}, Acutifatuum aut stulte acutum, subtilly foolish. a1677 I. BARROW Several Serm. Evil-speaking (1678) ii. 59 Some elegant figures..lofty Hyperbole's, Paronomasies, Oxymorons..lie very near upon the confines of jocularity. 1792 W. ROBERTS Looker-on No. 30 (1794) I. 427 These contradictory gentlemen..were thus pressed together in a [[force]]d kind of union, like the figure oxymoron. 1850 C. ANTHON in Cicero De Senectute 164 In giving sensim its strict literal [[meaning]], we will perceive here both an alliteration and oxymoron, the [[idea]] [[being]], in [[fact]], this: ‘life grows old so gradually that we perceive it, and yet do not perceive it.’ 1890 Q. Rev. 160 289 Voltaire..we might call, by an oxymoron which has plenty of [[truth]] in it, an ‘Epicurean pessimist’. 1930 Speculum 5 63 Like other mediaeval poets Joseph pushes oxymoron to a stage where it borders on the absurd. 1982 I. HAMILTON Robert Lovell xx. 370 Many of the sonnets are recognizably by Robert Lovell; they employ his verbal tricks{em}his triple adjectives, his gnomic oxymorons.
[1640 E. REYNOLDS Treat. Passions xvii. 186 It was a bold but true {olenis}{xi}{guacu}{mu}{omega}{rho}{omicron}{nu} of Seneca. Mortibus vivimus.] 1656 J. SMITH Myst. Rhetorique 121 '''Oxymoron''', {olenis}{xi}{guacu}{mu}{omega}{rho}{omicron}{nu}, Acutifatuum aut stulte acutum, subtilly foolish. a1677 I. BARROW Several Serm. Evil-speaking (1678) ii. 59 Some elegant figures..lofty Hyperbole's, Paronomasies, Oxymorons..lie very near upon the confines of jocularity. 1792 W. ROBERTS Looker-on No. 30 (1794) I. 427 These contradictory gentlemen..were thus pressed together in a [[force]]d kind of union, like the figure oxymoron. 1850 C. ANTHON in Cicero De Senectute 164 In giving sensim its strict literal [[meaning]], we will perceive here both an alliteration and oxymoron, the [[idea]] [[being]], in [[fact]], this: ‘life grows old so gradually that we perceive it, and yet do not perceive it.’ 1890 Q. Rev. 160 289 Voltaire..we might call, by an oxymoron which has plenty of [[truth]] in it, an ‘Epicurean pessimist’. 1930 Speculum 5 63 Like other mediaeval poets Joseph pushes oxymoron to a stage where it borders on the absurd. 1982 I. HAMILTON Robert Lovell xx. 370 Many of the sonnets are recognizably by Robert Lovell; they employ his verbal tricks{em}his triple adjectives, his gnomic oxymorons.