"euphemism" = metaphor or figure of speech

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Tue, 22 Mar 2005 20:44:49 -0800, Benjamin Barrett
<gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM> 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

But "antonym" doesn't quite fit the bill either.  I'm not surprised that
"oxymoron" was pressed into service for this figure of speech, since the
rhetorical term "antiphrasis" is only known to pointyheads.

http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Figures/A/antiphrasis.htm

See this post for antiphrastic nicknames from the Spanish-American War:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0502A&L=ads-l&P=R8497


--Ben Zimmer