# Top 45 Oxymoron's:



## David H (Feb 11, 2013)

*45.* Act naturally

*44.* Found missing

*43.* Resident alien

*42.* Advanced BASIC

*41.* Genuine imitation

*40.* Airline Food

*39.* Good grief

*38.* Same difference

*37.* Almost exactly

*36.* Government organization

*35.* Sanitary landfill

*34.* Alone together

*33.* Legally drunk

*32.* Silent scream

*31.* Living dead

*30.* Small crowd

*29.* Business ethics

*28.* Soft rock

*27.* Butt Head

*26.* Military Intelligence

*25.* Software documentation

*24.* New classic

*23.* Sweet sorrow

*22.* Childproof

*21.* "Now, then ..."

*20.* Synthetic natural gas

*19.* Passive aggression

*18.* Taped live

*17.* Clearly misunderstood

*16.* Peace force

*15.* Extinct Life

*14.* Temporary tax increase

*13.* Computer jock

*12.* Plastic glasses

*11.* Terribly pleased

*10.* Computer security

*9.* Political science

*8.* Tight slacks

*7.* Definite maybe

*6.* Pretty ugly

*5.* Twelve-ounce pound cake

*4.* Diet ice cream

*3.* Working vacation

*2.* Exact estimate

*1.* Microsoft Works


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## Vicsetter (Feb 11, 2013)

42 is wrong as BASIC is not a word but a accronym (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code)

and 5 is wrong there are 12 troy ounces in a pound, so it's illiteration


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## robert@fm (Feb 11, 2013)

Vicsetter said:


> 42 is wrong as BASIC is not a word but a accronym



It's not an acronym either, it's an acrostic.  The word "basic" existed long before computers... (Besides, an acronym is by definition a word; genuine examples include radar and laser.)


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## David H (Feb 11, 2013)

Vicsetter said:


> 42 is wrong as BASIC is not a word but a accronym (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code)
> 
> and 5 is wrong there are 12 troy ounces in a pound, so it's illiteration



Maybe basic should have been in lower case.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/BASIC

Troy ounces are used for precious metals, ie. gold or silver
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_ounce

Pound cake is a type of cake.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_cake


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## Vicsetter (Feb 11, 2013)

It is an acronym, as you said you put it in capitals!.  Not all acronyms are words, TBC, TBA, WTF etc.   Lots of acronyms are invented to be pronounceable, this is especially true of computer languages, FORTH, PASCAL, FORTRAN, BASIC etc etc. Unlike Linux which is not all capitals and is not an acronym.

Troy ounces:  In the present day it is most commonly used to gauge the mass of precious metals.  However there are still 12 to a pound and the pound cake is so called because it is made of a pound of each of 4 ingredients, so it is perfectly acceptable to have 12 ounces of a pound cake (so maybe it is a true oxymoron and not a contradiction)

Is it an oxymoron because it appears to be a contradiction or because it is a contradiction? do we care or is it all a joke? Is Wikipedia correct and all English derives from American.

How about Faux plastic (don't know what it is but I have seen it on a label on something in a shop).


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## Mark T (Feb 11, 2013)

Vicsetter said:


> It is an acronym, as you said you put it in capitals!.  Not all acronyms are words, TBC, TBA, WTF etc.   Lots of acronyms are invented to be pronounceable, this is especially true of computer languages, FORTH, PASCAL, FORTRAN, BASIC etc etc. Unlike Linux which is not all capitals and is not an acronym


Well technically that should be Forth, Pascal and Fortran then - because they are not acronyms! 

Of course you also get acronyms made out of acronyms as well.  (but can't quote any examples because they are business terminology used by my employer)

Although, getting back on track, I did remember reading a while back that Ferrari described there new car design as "simply sophisticated".


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## mcdonagh47 (Feb 11, 2013)

I expect he means "Oxymorons" anyway (or even oxymora )

FORTRAN could be considered an acronym ( FORmal TRANslating) but linguistically it's called a "blend".

PASCAL is an eponym.

FORTH is a homophone for Fourth ( its original name ) or even an abbreviation.

Linux is a humourous one - Linus Torvalds created it and put the L from his own name onto an anagram of Unix. Could be an acronym after all ??


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## trophywench (Feb 11, 2013)

Is there an organisation called Pedants Anonymous?

Think we just saw the minutes of the first meeting anyway ......


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## robert@fm (Feb 11, 2013)

Vicsetter said:


> It is an acronym, as you said you put it in capitals!.  Not all acronyms are words, TBC, TBA, WTF etc.   Lots of acronyms are invented to be pronounceable, this is especially true of computer languages, FORTH, PASCAL, FORTRAN, BASIC etc etc. Unlike Linux which is not all capitals and is not an acronym.



You clearly have no idea what you're on about; the _definition_ of "acronym" is that it is "a *new word* formed from the initials of a phrase". The first three examples you give are initialisms, not acronyms; it's true that some web sites claim the two terms to be interchangeable, but that just goes to show that one can't believe everything claimed on web sites. 

As for the computer language examples, only FORTRAN is an acronym (FORmula TRANslation); BASIC is as already stated an acrostic (a phrase contrived such that its initials form an already-existing word), FORTH is a contraction of "fourth" (because the IBM 1130 OS only allowed 5-character or shorter file names), and Pascal (or PASCAL as some people render it) is an eponym (named for the inventor of the first mechanical calculator, French mathematician Gabriel Pascal -- not philosopher Blaise Pascal as many people assume).

And "acronym" most definitely doesn't mean "something one writes in capitals"; the two examples I already gave of real acronyms, "radar" (RAdio Detection And Ranging) and "laser" (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) usually aren't written that way.


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## Steff (Feb 11, 2013)

So pleased this whole thread goes whoosh over my head


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## Vicsetter (Feb 12, 2013)

robert@fm said:


> You clearly have no idea what you're on about; the _definition_ of "acronym" is that it is "a *new word* formed from the initials of a phrase".



absolutely no need to be rude.  I refer you to the Oxford dictionary (not wikepedia): Acronym: an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as a word (e.g. ASCII, NASA). Where did your definition come from.

I always associated acrostic with poems: acrostic - From Greek akron, "end," and stikhos, "row, line of verse."

Glad to see your riding this journey Steff.


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## Jimbo (Feb 17, 2013)

trophywench said:


> Is there an organisation called Pedants Anonymous?
> 
> Think we just saw the minutes of the first meeting anyway ......



I don't think they are anonymous any longer. 
Alive and kicking here!


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