further adventures of "ironic"

[Dan Goncharoff]

I agree the first use of "ironic"sounds off. "Sad" seems to me what the
speaker was trying to convey.

The second usage, referring to the use of motors on the ultimate
foot-powered mode of transportation, seems less wrong.

DanG

On 6/7/2010 3:37 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter<wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: further adventures of "ironic"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> A current commercial that I can't quote precisely features a man who
> manufactures skateboards (or something vaguely similar) with motors. He then
> says that the motorized board idea is "rather ironic."
>
> "Strange" would seem to be a better fit here as well.
>
> JL
>
> On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 3:16 PM, Rick Barr<rickbarremail at gmail.com>  wrote:
>
>
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>> Poster:       Rick Barr<rickbarremail at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: further adventures of "ironic"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> It's an odd phrase, to say that closing down the street for the languid
>> parade was very ironic. I agree with George that "strange" is probably what
>> the speaker had in mind. But it's a special kind of strange, nuanced by the
>> standard meaning of *ironic*, involving a disparity between two things (the
>> real and the one that is presented, the intended meaning and the stated
>> one). I think that's what the speaker was aiming for, that it was strange
>> to
>> see such a disparity between the size of the parade and the magnitude of
>> the
>> chaos produced by it. I haven't seen other examples of this sort of
>> "ironic." Might the fact that the man was feeling IRate have prompted the
>> choice of IRonic?
>>
>> -- Rick
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 11:05 AM, George Thompson<george.thompson at nyu.edu
>>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>
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>>> Poster:       George Thompson<george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
>>> Subject:      further adventures of "ironic"
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>> An article in today's NYTimes on street processions in the Williamsburgh
>>> area, honoring patron saints, specifically St. Cono, of Teggiano, Italy.
>>>   (section A, p. 16, column 1, for those of us still bound to
>>>
>> print-on-paper)
>>
>>>   This area of Williamsburgh was until recently largely inhabited by
>>>
>> Italian
>>
>>> Catholics, but it seems now has a considerable number of young residents
>>>
>> not
>>
>>> raised to the tradition.
>>> One (Chris Tocco, 26, an actor) is quoted as saying: "It was a tiny
>>>
>> parade,
>>
>>> and they shut down Graham Avenue?  There was one float and a horrible
>>> marching band.  It was very ironic."
>>> If Mr. Toco were to be asked to pick a replacement for the word "ironic"
>>> here, he might choose "having the the nature of irony or covert sarcasm;
>>> meaning the opposite of what is expressed"; he might choose "showing a
>>> condition of affairs or events of a character opposite to what was, or
>>>
>> might
>>
>>> naturally be, expected"; he might even choose "being marked by a slightly
>>> amusing trivial coincidence"; but I think he would choose "strange".
>>>
>>> A 27 year old onlooker offered the insight "It's kind of like a vestige
>>>
>> of
>>
>>> the old neighborhoods of Brooklyn".  It is like that, indeed, kind of.
>>>
>>> (First two defs. adapted from the OED)
>>>
>>> GAT
>>>
>>> George A. Thompson
>>> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
>>> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>>>
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