List of favorite oxymorons, redundancies and a few euphemisms

laconic auctioneer
obedient child
loquacious mime
painless dentistry
prudent lawyer
funny sitcom (oxymoron)
stoical penguin
barefoot doctor
bloody fighting
meaningless existence (redundant)
social science
correction services
service industry
apathetic activist
happy hour
socialist socialite
gifted amateur
defensive weapon
macho man

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ Jun 5 2006, 03:41 PM) [snapback]266133[/snapback]</div>

lude

Obs.


Noise, clamour.

c1205 LAY. 2591 {Th}a hunten wenden æfter mid muchelen heora lude [c 1275 loude]. a1275 Prov. Ælfred 687 in O.E. Misc. 138 He wole maken fule luden, He wole grennen, cocken and chiden. [But this may belong to LEDEN.]

[/b]lude 2.
Obs.


A game.

1694 MOTTEUX Rabelais v. (1737) 230 Ludes omniform are there invented.

Now here is a nice obsolete word, "lude" that means either noise or a game. The second meaning goes pretty well with lascivious, I think.(Not to be confused with "lube" which certainly can go with lascivious.)

 

on-call oncologist

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(larkinmj @ Jun 5 2006, 04:23 PM) [snapback]266176[/snapback]</div>

Wow. You mean they had Quaaludes in the 13th century! Guess it helped them get through the dark ages. Now we have lewd dudes taking Quaaludes.

 

welcome inflation

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(airportkid @ Jun 5 2006, 06:22 PM) [snapback]266273[/snapback]</div>

Hate to be pedantic, but I do know that lewd is not spelled lude, and have know this for some time. Still, it was interesting to see that there was a word - lude. (At least, more interesting to me than the political posts in Priuschat)

Also, lude is not an "alliteration" for lewd, but a homonym. Here is the definition of alliteration, and you will see what I mean:

Alliteration

1. gen. The commencing of two or more words in close connexion, with the same letter, or rather the same sound.

1656 BLOUNT Glossogr., Alliteration, a figure in Rhetorick, repeating and playing on the same letter. 1749 Power Pros. Numbers 71 That which some call Alliteration, i.e. beginning several Words with the same Letter, if it be natural, is a real Beauty. 1763 CHURCHILL Proph. Famine Poems I. 101 Apt Alliteration's artful aid. 1831 MACAULAY Johnson 126 Taxation no Tyranny..was..nothing but a jingling alliteration which he ought to have despised. 1871 R. F. WEYMOUTH Euph. 4 ‘Delightful to be read, and nothing hurtfull to be regarded; wherein there is small offence by lightnes given to the wise, and lesse occasion of loosenesse profferred to the wanton.’ Lilie's favourite form of alliteration is well marked in this sentence.
2. The commencement of certain accented syllables in a verse with the same consonant or consonantal group, or with different vowel sounds, which constituted the structure of versification in OE. and the Teutonic languages generally. Thus from the beginning of Langland's Piers Ploughman, text C.:

In a somere seyson · whan softe was e sonne,
Y shop me into shrobbis · as y a shepherde were;
In abit as an ermite · vnholy of werkes,
Ich wente forth in e worlde · wonders to hure,
And sawe meny cellis · and selcouthe ynges.

1774 T. WARTON Eng. Poetry (1840) I. Diss. I. 38 The Islandic poets are said to have carried alliteration to the highest pitch of exactness. 1846 T. WRIGHT Ess. Mid. Ages I. i. 14 The form of Saxon poetry is alliterationnot rhyme. 1871 EARLE Philol. Eng. Tong. §626 Alliteration did not necessarily act on the initial letter of the word.

 

democrat; republican (redundant)
greedy capitalist
vain human
vacuous jazz