Confession. I don't understand a very common phrase even after googling...

[OverthinkingOlive]

Oxymoron. I don't get it? Please can somebody explain? I'm in a professional role and I own a house but for fuck sake I just don't get it.

A nice nightmare? Is that the kind of thing it means?

Live recording always seems like an oxymoron to me, even though I know what it's getting at.

Of course "terribly" etc has more than one meaning buf it doesn't stop it being oxymoronic if you stop and think about the other meaning, especially as the etymology must surely be linked somehow. Presumably we didn't always use "terribly" in connection with positive things.

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/438894/how-did-terribly-come-to-mean-very-or-exceptionally

@OverthinkingOlive think Shakespeare again - Parting is such sweet sorrow.

Sorrow isn’t sweet - but by using the two words together, it creates a new meaning. We all understand the concept of a sorrow that’s mingled with a kind of pleasure. It’s a literary device used a lot in that period and especially vividly by Shakespeare.

Deafening silence example is when Saoirse Ronan spoke on Graham Norton on how women need to think about protecting themselves. The whole room was silent… deafening silent.

Why have you gone for the first negative example and ignored the previous ones?

Misanthropic humanitarian?

Something being fully empty is a good example. We use them all the time. They are a word or phrase where the words seem to have opposite meanings to each other. Clearly smeared, nicely wicked, delightfully evil, black snow, newly old... Warm ice-cream. Cold hot pudding...

Some people make jokes about oxymorons where they think it's not possible to have two things together - in this case dislike and dogs. What they should say is "Is it possible to put those two words together in a sentence?" As it is a misuse of the idea of an oxymoron.

6 fucking pages

A restaurant having home-cooked food...

That's not an oxymoron

My favourite Oxymoron was always “Microsoft Works”

Sadly, you need to be a certain age to get this one (for the youngsters, before you had Microsoft Office with Word, Excel, etc you had Microsoft Works. Only it was limited in functionality, frequently crashed and was generally poor).

Slogan for bug spray: The Harmless Killer.

I actually saw this one. The blurb stated the product wouldn't harm pets but killed bugs double-dead.

Its usually likely that the restaurant cooks the food on the premises. If it were actually cooked at home it wouldn't pass food hygiene regulations or be warm enough for consumption. Food could be prepared at home.

I know what you meant, but the language structure isn't that of an oxymoron.

Home made apple pie - says so right there on the tin.

While we're all being pedantic 😂 "terrible beauty" isn't a real oxymoron because beauty can inspire terror. Don't know the poem, but something like a volcanic eruption could be a "terrible beauty".

The French have a meaningful beauty oxymoron, jolie-laide, meaning "pretty-ugly". It refers to an ugliness that some might find beautiful so, it's a real thing that is oxymoronic.

I gave up using "oxymoron" on Web forums, because some fuckwit always thinks I'm calling them a moron and won't let it go 😬 Pity: oxymorons are fun!

yes. If Yeats had said "And an ugly beauty is born" it would have been on the face of it oxymoronic while also conveying all sorts of other literary messages. But he didn't he said a terrible beauty which isn't oxymoronic.

The two I was taught were Australian culture and American Intelligence, but I'm not sure I'd be allowed to use them as examples now.