Original copy: Oxymorons that aren't. Original copy, as fans of George Carlin and Richard Lederer know, has been a staple of the joke-oxymoron list for decades, along with jumbo shrimp, guest conductor, terribly happy, and the like. But these are only oxymoronic if you pretend that you're ignorant of one sense of the modifying word—that you think “jumbo†is an absolute measure, you've never used “guest†to mean “substitute†(â€guest conductorâ€), and you believe “terribly†must involve terror.
If you write copy for the press, can you not write "original copy", as opposed to reading the "copied copy" from the Associated Press newsfeed?
There are also "joke oxymorons". For example, calling "military intelligence" an oxymoron is just a joke at the expense of the military. I wouldn't call "military intelligence" a true oxymoron.
I discovered this thread when I was looking for the right thread to add this comment:
Is "indescribable" a one-word oxymoron? It seems like a very compact example of Russell's Paradox, as it is the descriptive word for things that cannot be described. Are there any other one-word oxymorons?
Sophomoric?
Yeah, I think Carlin's list also had postal service as an example.
Russell's Paradox is a fascinating puzzle to ponder. Douglas Hofstadter has written much about it. His classic example was "the set of all numbers that can't be expressed in less than fourteen words." Well … maybe that example can be attributed directly to Russell, but Hofstadter introduced me to the idea.
Telemath: for one-word oxymorons, add imponderable to your list.
Glenn: not sure I get sophomoric as an example of same.
I would have just said sophomore. It means "wise fool."