Oxymoron vs Onomatopoeia - What's the difference?
oxymoron | onomatopoeia |
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.
(uncountable) The property of a word of sounding like what it represents.
* {{quote-book
, year= 1553
, year_published= 1909
, author= , (Desiderius Erasmus)
, by=
, title= Arte of Rhetorique
, url= http://books.google.com/books?id=6p0xbOGIz2MC&pg=PA173
, original=
, chapter=
, section=
, isbn=
, edition=
, publisher= Clarendon Press
, location= Oxford
, editor=
, volume=
, page=
, passage= A woorde making called of the Grecians Onomatapoia , is when wee make wordes of our owne minde, such as bee derived from the nature of things.
}}
(countable) A word that sounds like what it represents, such as "gurgle" or "hiss".
(uncountable, rhetoric) The use of language whose sound imitates that which it names.
As nouns the difference between oxymoron and onomatopoeia
is that oxymoron is oxymoron (figure of speech) while onomatopoeia is (uncountable) the property of a word of sounding like what it represents.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