'''Oxymoron''' is a figure of speech in which two terms which are polar opposites are used together for [[rhetorical]] effect, or criticized because they are self-contradictory as in "[[pro-life]] [[Democrat]]." In the past, rhetoric and elocution were standard school subjects and students were taught long lists of technical names of figures of speech and their meaning. ''Oxymoron'' was one of these, along with ''[[simile]]'', ''[[metaphor]]'', ''[[metonymy]]'', etc. True oxymoron is relatively rare; one well-known example occurs in [[Tennyson]]'s ''Idylls of the King:'' | '''Oxymoron''' is a figure of speech in which two terms which are polar opposites are used together for [[rhetorical]] effect, or criticized because they are self-contradictory as in "[[pro-life]] [[Democrat]]." In the past, rhetoric and elocution were standard school subjects and students were taught long lists of technical names of figures of speech and their meaning. ''Oxymoron'' was one of these, along with ''[[simile]]'', ''[[metaphor]]'', ''[[metonymy]]'', etc. True oxymoron is relatively rare; one well-known example occurs in [[Tennyson]]'s ''Idylls of the King:'' |