Friday 19 August 2011

Grammar: Oxymorons

Hair corsage

 Oxymorons disagree with themselves.


A Canadian study finds higher than expected low reading achievement. (LD Online)

advanced Basic

alone together
Antibiotic-Resistant Staph Antibiotic Discovered (Slashdot headline)

baby grand
(piano)
back to the forefront
bright drab (Stylishly dressed in bright drab. H G Wells)

civil war

cold hot water bottle 
contemporary antique brass ceiling light

fast idle
first Last Song
flat point (lace)
fully vacant flats for sale

Go now, then

growing shortage
guest host (on a chat show)

hair corsage
(A corsage you wear in your hair. Wrist corsages are also available.)
high colour depths can be obtained.

It’s extremely unusual to have such a high depth of rainfall in such a short duration. (Guardian 2007. High quantity?)

high levels of depression

highly undervalued
human avian flu vaccine 
I'll come straight round!

increasingly few
(The works of the Franco-Romanian playwright ... get increasingly few outings these days. Evening Standard, 2003. Fewer and fewer?)

Indian Style Chinese Vegetable Fried Rice

It’ll be all round the square! (East Enders)
known undiscovered oil reserves
last First Lady
last first night
manned by women

many fewer
 (Labour market inflexibility explains why the European economy has created so many fewer jobs than the US over the past three decades.

mini supermarket

Mostar’s new Old Bridge
My hair is growing back at the front.

negative growth

now then, now then

old New Scientist
(that was in an...)
old New Year (like Old Christmas time)
old news
online newspaper
open secret
Our current future status

penguin rookery

pink bluebell
pink goldfish
plain in an ornate kind of way (Bargain Hunt)
a plastic glass
plum cherry tomatoes
pretty ugly
pygmy mammoth

Rain later, becoming lighter after dark.
rapid slowdown (of the economy)

silk bed linen

Spanish Turkish bath
square round-houses
static mobile homes

That's your My Little Pony

the Altneushul (Prague's "old new" synagogue, home of the Golem)

There is a brown "blue plaque" commemorating Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West on their house in Ebury Street, London SW1. (Wikipedia)

Use pins to give yourself a temporary permanent (wave)
vacant possession
water windmill
white pinks
Who runs the walks? (Hackney Council)
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