What is an oxymoron?

Not so long ago we all celebrated the Old NewYear. Few people thought that the name of this celebrated holiday is what is called the intricate word "oxymoron". And what is an oxymoron, actually?

Oxymoron (translated from the Greek "oxymoron" -"ridiculous nonsense", "keenly ridiculous") - a kind of path, which consists in combining contrasting, opposite in meaning words. This creates a new semantic quality, an unexpected expressive effect (for example, "ice fire", "light darkness", "terribly funny", etc.).

This stylistic figure is most often used in artistic texts to create an unusual, memorable image. For example:

"I am composing funny poems

About life perishable, perishable and beautiful "

Anna Akhmatova

***

"My husband is an executioner,

and his house is a prison "

Anna Akhmatova

In addition, we use an oxymoron ineveryday life, sometimes even without noticing it: "awfully beautiful", "courageous woman", "steel nerves", "sweet bitterness", "sad laughter", "deafening silence", "fallen angel" and many others.

Also much less often this path is used in publicism (imperious disorder, complex simplicity, artificial man).

Brighter of all, of course, the functions of an oxymoronThey are shown in bright, catchy names of various books and films. For example, the books: "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by M. Kundera, "The Dead Souls" by N. Gogol, The Living Corpse by L. Tolstoy, The Honest Thief by F. Dostoyevsky, The Living Mogs by I. Turgenev, "Hot Snow "Yu. Bondareva; films: "Ordinary miracle", "Back to the future", "With wide eyes closed", "True lie".

Now that you know what an oxymoron is, it will be easy to find examples of it in literature and in everyday life.