Fwd: A.Word.A.Day--antiphrasis

[Laurence Horn]

Our topic from last week, supporting Ben Zimmer's nominee...

L
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Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 01:03:59 -0500
From: Wordsmith <wsmith at wordsmith.org>
To: linguaphile at wordsmith.org
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--antiphrasis

antiphrasis (an-TIF-ruh-sis) noun

    The humorous or ironic use of a word or a phrase in a sense opposite
    of its usual meaning. For example:
    "Brutus is an honorable man." -Antony in Julius Caesar (Shakespeare)

[From Late Latin, from Greek antiphrazein (to express by the opposite),
from anti- + phrazein (to speak).]

Today's word in Visual Thesaurus: http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=antiphrasis

   "He was murmuring something between lips decorated by a little mustache,
    which gave a sarcastic touch to his clerk-like expression, a mustache
    folded over his mouth like an antiphrasis, which tinged whatever he said
    with maliciousness, no matter how solemn it was."
    Edoardo Albinati & John Satriano; Story Written on a Motorcycle;
    Antioch Review (Yellow Springs, Ohio); Summer 1992.

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