Fwd: "irony, n." - Word of the Day from the OED

Sat Oct 19 10:05:46 CDT 2013

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: oedwotd at oup.com
Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 01:30:02 +0100
Subject: "irony, n." - Word of the Day from the OED
To: OEDWOTD-L at webber.uk.hub.oup.com

________________________________

Your word for today is: irony, n.

irony, n.
[‘ orig. Rhetoric.’]
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈʌɪrəni/,  U.S. /ˈaɪrəni/
Forms:  15 yronie,   15–16 ironie,   15–16 ironye,   15– irony.
Etymology: < (i) Middle French ironie, yronie (French ironie) (second
quarter of the 13th cent. in Anglo-Norman, end of the 13th cent. in
continental Old French denoting the rhetorical device),

 and its etymon (ii) classical Latin īrōnīa form of wit in which one
says the opposite of what one means, pretended ignorance (Cicero) <
ancient Greek εἰρωνεία dissimulation, pretended ignorance <  εἴρων
dissembler, of unknown origin + -εία -y suffix3.

 Compare Catalan ironia (14th cent.), Spanish ironía (1604),
Portuguese ironia (15th cent.), Italian ironia (a1375); also Dutch
ironie (1650), German Ironie (first half of the 16th cent., originally
(and before 18th cent. chiefly) in the Latinate form Ironia).
With sense 3 compare French ironie du malheur (early 19th cent.),
ironie du sort (1867), in the same sense.

 N.E.D. (1900) gives the pronunciation as (əiə·rŏni) /ˈaɪərənɪ/.
 1.  orig. Rhetoric.
 a.  As a mass noun. The expression of one's meaning by using language
that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or
emphatic effect; esp. (in earlier use) the use of approbatory language
to imply condemnation or contempt (cf. sarcasm n.). In later use also
more generally: a manner, style, or attitude suggestive of the use of
this kind of expression. Cf. ironia n.
The meaning in quot. a1657 is obscure.

 See also Romantic irony n. at romantic adj. and n. Special uses 2.

 The precise application of the term has varied over time and remains
the subject of much discussion. Irony is first recorded as a
rhetorical figure used in sentences and (later) extended pieces of
writing having a particular tone and intent. In 20th-cent. criticism
the application of irony has expanded to encompass non-verbal
expression in fields such as art and music where it denotes a
distancing from and playful engagement with what has come before. For
a fuller discussion see E. N. Hutchens ‘The Identification of Irony’
in ELH (1960)  27 352-63 and N. Knox The Word 'Irony' & its Context,
1500–1755 (1961).
1502  tr. Ordynarye of Crysten Men (de Worde) iv. xxii. sig. ff.iii,
Suche synne is named yronie, not that the whiche is of grammare, by
the whiche a man sayth one and gyueth to vnderstonde the contrary.
1533  T. More Debellacyon Salem & Bizance i. v. f. xxviiiv, When he
calleth one self noughty lad, both a shrewd boy and a good sonne, the
tone in the proper symple speche, the tother by the fygure of ironye
or antiphrasys.
1617  F. Moryson Itinerary i. 160 Your quip..that you were ashamed to
write to mee for your rude stile. Very good, I finde the Irony.
a1657  G. Daniel Trinarchodia: Henry V cxcviii, in Poems (1878) IV.
150 Yet here: (and 'tis the Ironie of warre Where Arrowes forme the
Argument;) he best Acquitts himselfe, who doth a Horse præfer To his
proud Rider.
a1694  J. Tillotson Several Disc. (1697) xi. 339 That bitter Irony of
Solomon should cut us to the heart.
1755  Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang., Glee, joy; merriment; gayety... It is
not now used, except in ludicrous writing, or with some mixture of
irony and contempt.
1788  F. Burney Diary 13 Feb. (1842) IV. 103 He believed Irony the
ablest weapon of oratory.
1854  ‘G. Eliot’ in Westm. Rev. Oct. 453 That blending of the
high-toned chivalry of Spain with the caustic wit and refined irony of
Italy.
1873 Temperance Rec. 15 Mar. 123/3 The effect of our University life
is strongly diminished in intensity by what I venture to call the
irony that comes over us here.
1876  J. Weiss Wit, Humor, & Shakespeare ii. 44 It is irony when
Lowell, speaking of Dante's intimacy with the Scriptures, adds, ‘They
do even a scholar no harm’.
1914  S. Lewis Our Mr. Wrenn iv. 57 ‘Nice work,’ Satan interjected
from time to time, with smooth irony. ‘Sure. Go ahead. Like to hear
your plans.’
1939  K. Merrild Poet & Two Painters 220 That sardonic smile of irony
and disillusionment.
1967  R. Graves in News Jrnl. (Mansfield, Ohio) 24 Sept. (Family
Weekly Mag.) 7/2 Every word, except parables and metaphors, must be
taken literally. She did not understand irony, sarcasm, or jokes about
other people.
1993  M. Paddison Adorno's Aesthetics of Music (2001) i. 48 The irony
of the piece is constructed through the opposition within the work
between the handed-down form or genre (e.g. the March) and the process
of thematic development.
1995 N.Y. Mag. 9 Oct. 79 Verhoeven and choreographer Marguerite
Pomerhn-Derricks stage these peculiar routines with grim determination
and a stunning absence of irony.
2004 Independent 20 Sept. (Review section) 6/3 Without a hint of
irony, many of them tout Tallinn as ‘the new Prague’—a city so overrun
with drunken Brits that they reportedly account for 20 per cent of all
weekend violent crime.
 b.  As a count noun. An instance of this; an ironic utterance or expression.
1534  tr. L. Valla Treat. Donation vnto Syluester sig. L, Forsoth this
is an excedyng stronge argumente and a wonderfull defence. [margin] An
irony.
1551  Bp. S. Gardiner Explic. Catholique Fayth f. 22, He spake it by
an Ironie or skorne.
1623  Bp. J. Hall Contempl. VII. O.T. xix. 295 Ironies deny strongest
in affirming.
1656  E. Reyner Rules Govt. Tongue 227 An Irony is a nipping jeast, or
a speech that hath the honey of pleasantnesse in its mouth, and a
sting of rebuke in its taile.
1706  tr. J. B. Morvan de Bellegarde Refl. upon Ridicule 229 Subtil
and delicate Ironies.
1738  W. Warburton Divine Legation Moses I. Ded. 9 A thorough Irony
addressed to some hot Bigots.
1859 Crayon 6 106/1 There was a time when he possessed twenty stout
quarto volumes of mere ironies, and still more satires.
1894  W. J. Dawson Making of Manhood 29 Smart sneers and barbed
ironies at the expense of every movement which seeks to meliorate the
common lot.
1918  C. Stockley Blue Aloes (1919) 292 ‘It would be better to have it
attached to me, of course,’ April agreed, with an irony that was
entirely wasted on Diana.
1966  P. N. Furbank Italo Svevo viii. 169 By not highlighting his
ironies he leaves the reader to look for them in every sentence.
2011 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 14 July 36/1 She was heralded for her new, terse,
emotionally cool style. Her deft ironies powerfully captured the
skeptical mood of her peers.
 2.  Dissimulation, pretence; esp. (and in later use only) feigned
ignorance and disingenuousness of the kind employed by Socrates during
philosophical discussions (see Socratic irony n. at Socratic adj. and
n. Additions); an instance of this. Cf. eiron n.
1502  tr. Ordynarye of Crysten Men (de Worde) iv. xxii. sig. ff.iii,
Suche synne is named yronie, not that the whiche is of grammare, by
the whiche a man sayth one and gyueth to vnderstonde the contrary.
1605  Bacon Of Aduancem. Learning ii. f. 9v, Socrates answereth; you
haue reason, and it becomes you well, beeing a man so trimme in your
vestiments, &c. and so goeth on in an Ironie.
1655  T. Stanley Hist. Philos. I. iii. 5 The whole confirmation of the
cause, even the whole life seems to carry an Irony, such was the life
of Socrates, who was for that reason called..one that personates an
unlearned man, and is an admirer of others as wise.
1738  W. Warburton Divine Legation Moses I. iii. iii. 330 The Method
of disputing by Interrogation..gave birth to the famous Attic Irony.
1767  A. Campbell Lexiphanes 111, I shall protect myself with the mask
of deceit, the grin of irony, and the sneer of dissimulation.
1848  H. Rogers Ess. I. vi. 318 The irony of Socrates..may be not
unfittingly expressed by saying, that it is a logical masked battery.
1860  R. W. Emerson Considerations in Conduct of Life (U.K. ed.) 222
Like Socrates, with his famous irony; like Bacon, with life-long
dissimulation.
1907 Amer. Catholic Q. Rev. July 450 The irony or feigned ignorance of
Socrates is a device which many a schoolmaster would be loath to
forego.
2000  G. S. Holland Divine Irony iv. 84 Here Socrates' irony is again
a form of dissembling.
 3.  A state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary
to what was or might be expected; an outcome cruelly, humorously, or
strangely at odds with assumptions or expectations.
cosmic, dramatic, tragic irony: see the first element.
1833  C. Thirlwall On Irony of Sophocles in Philol. Museum 2 490 For
here the irony lies not in the demeanor of the judge, but is deeply
seated in the case itself, which seems to favour each of the
litigants, but really eludes them both.
1833  C. Thirlwall On Irony of Sophocles in Philol. Museum 2 508 Now
the irony of fate displays itself in the cruellest manner: all her
wishes shall be granted, but only to verify her worst fears.
1848  H. N. Hudson Lect. on Shakespeare I. vi. 229 The irony of the
thing, for it is ironical withal, is, that if a man be removed from
the gutter to the palace, he changes his place only, not his mind.
1860  W. Collins Woman in White iii. xi. 413 The irony of
circumstances holds no mortal catastrophe in respect.
1897  G. A. B. Dewar Bk. Dry Fly iii. 81 It is somewhat of an irony
that Dry Fly fishing, which was primarily resorted to because it was
the only sportsmanlike way of killing shy fish in clear streams, is
now to be regarded as one of the things which help to make the trout
more wary than ever.
1922  R. K. Root Poetry of Chaucer (rev. ed.) ii. 40 Chaucer's
constant sense of the irony of life, of the mockery which our ultimate
achievement casts on rosy expectation.
1967  M. L. King Trumpet of Conscience ii. 31 We have been repeatedly
faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV
screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been
unable to seat them together in the same schools.
1991 World Press Rev. Jan. 20/1 By one of those ironies of which
history is so fond, Margaret Thatcher herself whetted the knife that
did her in.
1998 Kiplinger's Personal Finance Mag. Sept. 8/2 Oh, the irony. In the
same issue in which you warned readers about identity theft, you
disclosed that one of your staffers keeps his social security card in
his wallet.

http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/99565
________________________________

Visit the OED's home page at http://www.oed.com
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l