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Portmanteau: a new word that fuses two words or morphemes; Retronym: creating a new word to denote an old object or concept whose original name has come to be used for something else; Oxymoron: a combination of two contradictory terms; Zeugma and Syllepsis: the use of a single phrase in two ways simultaneously
In American English, to assure is purely to intend to give the listener confidence, to ensure is to make certain of something, and to insure is to purchase or provide insurance for something. The only difference with British English is that assure can be used instead of insure , particularly in the context of life insurance or assurance.
The good die young; The grass is always greener (on the other side) (of the fence) The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world; The husband is always the last to know; The innocent seldom find an uncomfortable pillow – William Cowper, English poet (1731–1800) [28] The labourer is worthy of his hire
Prepare to rejoice and check out the round-up gallery above for 10 supposedly bad things that are actually really good for you! Related: 4 "bad" snacks that are actually pretty healthy.
Antiphrasis is the rhetorical device of saying the opposite of what is actually meant in such a way that it is obvious what the true intention is. [1] Some authors treat and use antiphrasis just as irony, euphemism or litotes. [2] When the antiphrasal use is very common, the word can become an auto-antonym, [3] having opposite meanings ...
Conventional moral wisdom holds that evil deeds are punished by divine providence and good deeds are rewarded by divine providence: [1] For as punishment is to the evil act, so is reward to a good act. Now no evil deed is unpunished, by God the just judge. Therefore no good deed is unrewarded, and so every good deed merits some good. [a]
Oxymorons are words that communicate contradictions. An oxymoron (plurals: oxymorons and oxymora) is a figure of speech that juxtaposes concepts with opposite meanings within a word or in a phrase that is a self-contradiction. As a rhetorical device, an oxymoron illustrates a point to communicate and reveal a paradox.
An unpaired word is one that, according to the usual rules of the language, would appear to have a related word but does not. [1] Such words usually have a prefix or suffix that would imply that there is an antonym , with the prefix or suffix being absent or opposite.