An oxymoron is a figure of speech that consists of contradictory terms like extremely average, dark sunshine, jumbo shrimp, fine mess, bittersweet and alone together. Contrasts side by side have a sharp and intriguing effect. Sometimes they come to life by accident because of errors we make when we speak or other times by sheer sloppiness. Eventually, the "lucky ones" end up being widely adopted and used in our vernacular speech.
They're also a result of creative minds and artistic freedom. Writers often use oxymorons as literary tools to spice up their writing. A grand example is William Shakespeare. He used oxymorons (also written oxymorona in plural) both in his plays and sonnets to strengthen the emotions of his characters and their dialogues.
"O brawling love! O loving hate!"
When you read that, maybe nothing is more surprisingly true than an oxymoron?
Other oxymorons from Romeo and Juliet:
"Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health."
"A damned saint, an honourable villain."
"Dove-feathered raven! Wolfish-ravening lamb!"
You just got to love them for their poetic character, or maybe something's wrong with me?
I guess we've all got the big picture of oxymorons by now, and I'll hope we'll all use our artistic freedom to come up with some new ones, or maybe share or use our favourite oxymorons more frequently in our every day blab.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxymoron
