Oxymoron vs Fig - What's the difference?
oxymoron | fig |
A figure of speech in which two words with opposing meanings are used together intentionally for effect.
* A famous example is Milton, Paradise Lost , Book 1, ll. 63-4:
* Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet , Act 1. Scene 1, in which Romeo utters nine oxymora in just six lines of soliloquy:
(general) A contradiction in terms.
A fruit-bearing tree or shrub of the genus Ficus that is native mainly to the tropics.
The fruit of the fig tree, pear-shaped and containing many small seeds.
A small piece of tobacco.
The value of a fig, practically nothing; a fico; a whit.
* Shakespeare
(obsolete) To insult with a fico, or contemptuous motion.
* Shakespeare
(obsolete) To put into the head of, as something useless or contemptible.
To move suddenly or quickly; rove about.
As nouns the difference between oxymoron and fig
is that oxymoron is oxymoron (figure of speech) while fig is fig.oxymoron
English
(wikipedia oxymoron)Noun
(en-noun)- No light, but rather darkness visible
- Serv'd only to discover sights of woe
- Why then, O brawling love', O ' loving hate ,
- O anything, from nothing first create,
- O heavy lightness'! ' Serious vanity !
- Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms,
- Feather of lead', '''bright smoke''', '''cold fire''', ' sick health ,
- Still-waking sleep , that is not what it is!
- This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
Usage notes
* Historically, an (term) was "a (paradox) with a point",Jebb, Sir Richard (1900).Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part III: The Antigone]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. where the contradiction seems absurd at first glance, and yet is deliberate, its purpose being to underscore a point or to draw attention to a concealed point. The modern usage of (term) as a synonym for the simpler contradiction in terms is considered incorrect by some speakers and writers, and is perhaps best avoided in certain contexts. (See also the [[w:oxymoron, Wikipedia article].)
Derived terms
* oxymoronic * oxymoronically * oxymoronicnessSee also
*References
External links
*List of oxymorons*
Lee’s Complete Oxymoron List], with discussion of classification ([http://web.archive.org/web/20080617020051/http://lee.critesclan.com/oxymorons.html archive) English autological terms English oxymorons
fig
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) fige, fygge (also fyke, from (etyl) )Andreas Franz and Wilhelm Schimper, Plant Geography Upon a Physiological Basis , volume 2 (Berlin: Gebrüder Borntraeger, 1902), page 100. Another (etyl) root (compare (etyl) ; whence (etyl) sycophant.Noun
(en noun)- I'll pledge you all; and a fig for Peter!
Derived terms
* caprifig * fig leaf * figgy * figtree * not give a figVerb
(figg)- When Pistol lies, do this, and fig me like / The bragging Spaniard.