What is an oxymoron? This is part of our life

It's like an erroneous stylistic figure that uses words with polar opposite meanings.

And what is an oxymoron?

A combination of the incompatible in all the contradiction of meanings. But a purely psychological oxymoron helps to clarify the most confusing, inexplicable situations. The brightly colored one often takes root in speech so much that people stop flinching and being surprised when they hear the oxymoron.

Examples - an oxymoron that has taken root

Characteristics that sound very common and quite commonplace are: courageous woman, feminine man, honest cheater(Mavrodi) , humane flayer(poisoned a dog in the park so that the children would not be afraid) , intelligent banditry(politics of the United States), and as a phrase it does not surprise anyone at all.

Classic oxymorons

Even more often, oxymorons are invented. After all, what is an oxymoron? This is, among other things, an indicator of the presence of a speaker or writer. Surely everyone will smile when they hear or read this: to harm And do good, cheerful wake - three accordions were torn. Therefore, it is not only the writing people who are trying their best. Of course there are great examples. An oxymoron from Gogol, from Dostoevsky, from Turgenev, from Tolstoy, from Bondarev, from Zinoviev. How can you forget" Dead Souls" or "Hot Snow", "Yawning Heights" or " An ordinary miracle".

Modern oxymorons

However, many modern oxymorons were born with the desire to survive: unpaid salary no longer surprises anyone. A elegant nudity not only amazes, but also delights with poetry. Life goes into endless dead end. Buy uncertificated securities! Life-giving euthanasia Russian language. Innovative traditions indestructible! " Optimistic tragedy"that's the guarantee" WITH eyes wide shut". Daria Dontsova is especially creative in this regard. Almost every title of her books is an oxymoron. This is quite common in modern literature when a contradiction of meanings helps to quickly understand the meaning of the phenomenon being described and remember it more firmly. And the stylistic effect is obvious: the oxymoron is even used in trainings to liberate the “childishness” inside an adult. Remember Chukovsky: who is that scary giant? A cockroach, just that.

Neologisms

The main condition for creating an oxymoron is the deliberate nature of the internal contradiction in the phrase. A virtual reality- one of the most successful oxymorons of our time. Honest Thief- can also apply not only to Detochkin, but also to Navalny. And fair trial! Old news- superior definition of information in the age of technology. An oxymoron as such is not even quite a definition; it is very close to the action. Therefore, especially gifted writers came up with a neologism: oxymoron, For example. Sounds great: reforms are an oxymoron. The main thing is that everything is clear to everyone, which means the definition is spot on. So we figured out what an oxymoron is.