MrCat Foundation

Oxymoron 是 yourdictionary.com 的 WOTD 今日單字。

我一直覺得這個字是：○×丫moron「圈叉啊笨蛋」，或者是「有氧蠢蛋」。真相其實也差不多，這個字的 oxys- 字根是銳利的意思，就是 oxygen 氧氣的同一個字根，-moros 則是鈍拙的意思，也是 moron 非常笨的笨蛋這個字的字根。兩個相反的字根擺在一起，就是指自相矛盾的詞，然而卻僅是帶著戲謔的趣味，而不是 self-contradictory 那麼嚴肅的辯證意味。

WOTD 的舉例很不錯：英國料理、美國品味、政治科學等等。另外像是眾所習見的 virtual reality、職業玩家、低調奢華、都市叢林、暈車藥(?)、「笑自然一點」、財報裡的「固定資產變動表」等等，都已經是老梗了。Microsoft Works 則是我沒聽過的梗，哈哈，舉例得真好。雖然 MS 通常還是滿好用的，雖然英國也有好料理、美國人也很有品味，雖然 products labelled foolproof are not trying to prove you are a fool (though occasionally they do...)，雖然 hedge fund 也可以拿來避險(?)。還有，現在這個時局真的是儉僕致窮，得靠全民消費救國了。

以下引自：http://www.yourdictionary.com/wotd/oxymoron

Part of Speech: noun

Pronunciation: [ahk-see-'mo-rahn]

Definition: A phrase comprising two mutually contradictory words.

Usage: Now, see how many you can find in this paragraph: "It was a pretty ugly situation: we were alone together with a pitcher of beer almost exactly half full listening to soft rock. I was half naked in a pair of tight slacks and Lucy wore a pair of slack tights. Suddenly we had an urge for some jumbo shrimp but when I put on my plastic glasses to look for them, we found our car keys missing." Other candidates are a matter of interpretation. What do you think: bureaucratic efficiencies, British cuisine, American taste, Russian political organization, golf fashion, holy war, Microsoft Works, political science, rap music?

Suggested Usage: We often understand phrases that, when interpreted logically, actually contradict themselves! What do you think passes through the mind of an English-learner when they first hear: "a long brief," "the living dead," or "freezer burn?" A shot fired at me was a "near miss;" does this mean I was partially hit? What could "old news" possibly mean? An old story cannot be news of any kind.

Etymology: From Greek oxus "sharp" and moros "dull, stupid." Greek "oxus" is also found in "oxygen" and shares an origin with Latin acus "needle" underlying "acuity," "acid," "acupuncture," and "acute." In Germanic it became *agjo which developed into Old Norse eggja, "to incite, egg on," borrowed later by English "egg (on)" which thus has nothing to do with the avian reproductive system. The same Germanic stem developed into English "edge."