- Today's Word
Oxymoron
[ok-si-MOR-on]
Definition
- (noun) A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear together. It’s a combination of words that seem to cancel each other out, often used to create a rhetorical effect, reveal a paradox, or illustrate a complex idea.
Example
The phrase “deafening silence” is a classic oxymoron, combining the concept of loud noise with the absence of sound to describe an oppressive or uncomfortable quiet.
Fun Fact
The word “oxymoron” itself comes from the Greek words “oxys” meaning “sharp” or “pointed” and “moros” meaning “dull” or “stupid.” Ironically, the term for a contradiction in terms is itself a combination of contradictory ideas, making “oxymoron” an example of what it describes.
(adjective) Deliberately untrustworthy and deceitful; guilty of betraying trust or breaking faith.
The perfidious advisor had been leaking confidential strategy to competitors for years, all while accepting promotions and praise from the company he was quietly destroying.
Perfidious derives from the Latin perfidiosus, meaning “treacherous,” rooted in perfidia — “faithlessness” — built from per- (“through” or “away”) and fides (“faith” or “trust”). The same root fides gives us fidelity, confide, and fiduciary — making perfidious the dark twin of an entire family of words built on trust and loyalty. It entered English in the 16th century and has carried its sense of calculated, deliberate betrayal ever since.