Whenever I reach deep into the freezer for a package of meat, I always check for freezer burn. That is a condition that occurs when frozen food has sections that are dried out with a leathery texture caused by exposure to air. Freezer burn is usually caused by improper packaging or storing food for too long. Freezer burn doesn't make food unsafe to eat, but it can affect the flavour. Freezer burn is an oxymoron, a combination of contradictory or incongruous words. The phrase combines the word ‘burn,’ which typically refers to damage from a hot source, with ‘freezer,’ which signifies a cold environment.
Oxymoron was first used in English in 1656 and is itself an oxymoron according to its Greek roots. Oxymoron comes from the Greek word oxymoros, meaning pointedly foolish. The Greek oxys (sharp or keen) is joined to moros (foolish), both words with opposite meanings.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) used oxymorons (or oxymora according to some linguists) in his plays but the term oxymoron was not yet used to describe the literary device. Claudius in Hamlet Act 1 Scene 2 says, “Have we (as 'twere with a defeated joy, with one auspicious and one drooping eye, with mirth in funeral and dirge in marriage . . .). In Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare uses the familiar phrases, sweet sorrow, loving hate, heavy lightness, sick health, and cold fire.
Some oxymorons are used for satire or sarcasm, such as military intelligence, jumbo shrimp, deafening silence, and intelligent liberal or intelligent conservative (depending upon your political persuasion).
Oxymoron is not used to refer to a person, just a set of contradictory words. Oxymoron is not the same as a paradox. A paradox is a statement that seems to be contradictory or to go against common sense but is perhaps true. ‘Less is more’ and ‘the only constant is change’ are examples of a paradox.
Song titles that are oxymorons include A Hard Day’s Night by the Beatles, Sounds of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel, and Hello I Must Be Going by Phil Collins.
Oxymorons can also be sentences that imply contradictory actions or thoughts. Mark Twain wrote, “It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.” Yogi Berra had many oxymoron statements attributed to him. He said, “Why don’t you pair ‘em up in threes?” “The best cure of insomnia is to get a lot of sleep,” comes from W.C. Fields. Anthony Haden-Guest wrote, “Of course I can keep secrets. It’s the people I tell them to that can’t keep them.”
Phrases that you might hear, or even use yourself, that are oxymorons consist of almost exactly, awfully good, only choice, open secret, pretty ugly, and same difference.
Comedians often introduce a segment of their routine with an oxymoron when they talk about happily married, honest politician, Microsoft Works, plastic silverware, and working vacation.
If you're learning English as a second language, you might be confused by oxymorons. Read literally, they contradict themselves such as minor crisis. A crisis is defined as a time of serious difficulty or importance. But in comparative situations the crisis might be minor. But once you become more familiar with the English language, it is often easy to recognize such oxymorons as figures of speech. Richard Watson Todd, said, "The true beauty of oxymorons is that, unless we sit back and really think, we happily accept them as normal English."
I end with a few more oxymorons that intrigue me: cheerful pessimist, clearly misunderstood, crash landing, deceptively honest, dull roar, exact estimate, genuine imitation, ill health, loosely sealed, original copy, plastic glasses, random order, small crowd, true fiction, and wise fool.
