O heavy lightness! Serious vanity! Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms! A listener senses something awfully good about oxymorons, from the Greek for “pointedly foolish.” Grant shares this favorite example from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, while Martha picks a modern classic: airline food. What are your favorites? This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Favorite Oxymorons”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, my name is Andrew Forte, and I’m from Dallas, Texas.
Hi, Andrew. Welcome to the program.
Well, yeah, I listen to the show a lot, and something I want to call in and kind of see what your favorite ones were, and the subject is oxymorons.
Mm—
They’re so prevalent, and I hear them all the time, and I’ve always had kind of a fascination with them, and just wanted to see your opinions on them and if you have any favorite ones that I don’t have.
Wow. Well, let’s hear yours.
Some of the ones that, you know, I’m from the south, from Texas, so I hear all the time, you know, that was awfully good.
Awfully good.
Awfully good.
And then people say pretty bad or pretty ugly.
And, you know, there’s two opposite words that when you put them together mean something completely different.
-huh.
And the one I use the most that my girlfriend hates is same difference.
Oh, yeah.
That drives some people crazy, doesn’t it?
I like that one.
Same difference.
Same difference.
Six and one, half a dozen the other.
So oxymoron, this is where you have, within a single expression, two contradictory ideas, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, like jumbo shrimp, that kind of thing.
Right, right.
Jumbo shrimp, almost done.
Found missing.
Yeah, turned up missing.
Required donation, things like that.
Controlled chaos, I hear a lot.
Well, you know, that actually reminds me of the ones that are in Shakespeare.
Shakespeare has them in Romeo and Juliet.
He talks about misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms.
Actually, the whole verse is, can I read this to you?
This is from Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 1.
Oh, heavy lightness, serious vanity, misshapen 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, dost thou not laugh.
That’s one long oxymoron.
No, but feather of lead, bright smoke, still waking sleep?
That’s nice.
Cold fire, that’s incredible.
What’s so long?
Yeah, sick health.
Yeah.
I was going to throw mine in.
Well, you can’t compete with that.
He’s in his own class.
I know, I can’t.
I can’t.
But I’ll try.
How about, this wasn’t even around in his time.
How about airline food?
Oh, I see.
You’re going for the joke.
I could clean boy.
Clean boy?
I have one of those so-called clean boys.
Another favorite of mine is productivity committee.
That’s funny.
Nice.
Yeah.
So what turned you into a fan of oxymorons, from the Greek for pointedly foolish, by the way?
You know, honestly, I don’t know.
It’s one of those things, I think, growing up, I’d always hear them, and, you know, you hear them all the time.
When they talk about zombie movies, especially, you hear living dead.
Oh, sure, yeah.
I mean, it’s just so funny how prevalent they are, and, you know, people don’t necessarily seem to notice them.
Yeah, they’re an important part of speech, though, aren’t they?
They give color and life, speaking of dead, to our language.
I don’t think we could do without them.
I could do without free gift.
What in the world?
Well, I think we should ask our listeners to call in with their favorites.
Sure, yeah.
Send along your favorites.
That’d be great.
I’d love to hear them.
What are your favorite oxymorons?
Or send them an email to words@waywordradio.org.
Andrew, thank you so much for giving us a call today.
Thanks, Grant.
Okay, bye-bye.
Take care.
Have a good day.
Grant, that was a great call.
I think that’s going to be an instant classic.
I mean, what a goofy expression when you think about it.
Instant classic? Wait.
It’s like green blackberries, right?
Well, let us know your oxymorons.
Send them to words@waywordradio.org.
