further adventures of "ironic"

[George Thompson]

It seems to me that "the standard meaning of *ironic*" these days, (unless you are in the company of English majors, which god forbid) is "marked by a slightly amusing trivial coincidence".  I hear on sports broadcasts "He's hit only 3 homeruns this season, and, ironically, they have all been against the Tigers."  The drift from that to whatever Tocco may have had in mind seems to me to be inevitable.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

----- Original Message -----
From: Rick Barr <rickbarremail at gmail.com>
Date: Monday, June 7, 2010 3:19 pm
Subject: Re: further adventures of "ironic"
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

> 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:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > 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.
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
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