"euphemism" = metaphor or figure of speech

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Wed, 23 Mar 2005 00:21:43 -0500, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
wrote:

>>?Last night, I heard what seems like a similar shift for "oxymoron" where
>>someone used it to mean anytonym. The word was "tiny" referring to a person
>>who is large. BB
>
>Well, I'm not sure that would count as an antonym anymore than an
>oxymoron.  "Tiny giant" would  be an oxymoron, while "tiny" and
>"huge" would plausibly be antonyms.  But calling a giant "tiny" (or a
>silent person "Gabby", and similar cases) don't really fit either of
>these categories--what we have here is a...sarconym?

A "flesh name"?  According to Wiktionary (yikes), "sarconym" is a term for
the meat of a particular animal (beef, mutton, venison, pork).  But they
label this a "protologism", their term for "a word which has only recently
been devised": <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Sarconym>.

>(I'd suggest "ironym", but I've already nominated that for "Welsh
>rabbit", "Jewish penicillin", and similar examples.)

Likewise, "contronym" is already taken, as it's Richard Lederer's
designation for a word that's its own antonym (aka "Janus word",
"antagonym", "autoantonym", etc.).

I'd stick with good old "antiphrasis", even if it doesn't have a catchy
"-nym" form (antiphrastonym?).


--Ben Zimmer