Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia: The Ironic Word Thread

[FearTheMateria]

Intricately I, currently delirious of utter excitement and foolishly deliberating on the potentiallity of a thread such as this, have decided to dedicate a full post to words of the dictionary that I find truly ironic (aka Oxymorons). Upon my discoveries, I have ranked a single, or set of words, in order of how ironic they were. For added humor, I placed them in the form of "Tier Lists"

Top Tier:
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia "Fear of long words"
Invisible Ink (Provided by Chaco) "Writing in something thats not visible... That deserves Top Tier."

Mid Tier:
Soundproof room "A room that you make sound in. Yet it's sound proof."
Open the Shutters "Open something that is labeled to be shut. Wow."
Deafening Silence "I dun see how those two work..."
Known Secret (Provided by Chaco) "If its a known secret, it kinda looses the effect.. O.o

Low Tier:
Original Copy "I am not sure how something can be original and a copy at the same time." (Moved due to it's "Less ironic" appeal.)
Act Natural "One must pretend to be his normal self... One crazy paradox"
Dull Roar "A roar is defined as a loud call... But if its dull... That means it's not loud..."
Criminal Justice "This one speak for itself"
Living Dead "The reason we have no Zombies around: They can't figure out which they are..."

Bottom Tier:
Jumbo Shrimp "Overused. Way overused. Plus, Jumbo shrimp is the best kind... T_T"
Growing Small (Provided by Chaco) "On the bottom tier because it won't appear too often, but ironic nonetheless..."

Anything to add/wanna argue the tier rankings? Or baffled by the word Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia?

Post here! :D

 

[Chaco]

Growing Small, Known Secret, and uhh...I can't think of anything else..

Oh. Invisible Ink.

 

[Luigitoilet]

I think they call most of these "figures of speech". That's pretty obscure though, you might not have heard of them.

 

[Crimson King]

Yeah, none of these are really all that ironic. Jumbo Shrimp is an oxymoron, but the rest are, as LT said, figures of speech.

Also, original copy is perfectly normal. Copy just means unit in terms of things that can be replicated.

 

[FearTheMateria]

Also, original copy is perfectly normal. Copy just means unit in terms of things that can be replicated.

Not nesscessarily, the definition of original (as stated by Dictionary.com) is (in it's adjective form): "being something from which a copy, a translation, or the like is made"

So therefore, it clashes with the definition: "an imitation, reproduction, or transcript of an original"

You can't have something original that has been copied. It's ironic!

Also, for added pleasure, provided by the infamous Dictionary.com:
ox⋅y⋅mo⋅ron  [ok-si-mawr-on, -mohr-]
–noun, plural -mo⋅ra  [-mawr-uh, -mohr-uh]
A figure of speech by which a locution produces an incongruous, seemingly self-contradictory effect, as in “cruel kindness” or “to make haste slowly.”

 

[Crimson King]

What's your point exactly?

An original copy of something is usually referred to COPYABLE material (as I stated). You are just going by the literal definition of each word without context. That's why it's not ironic or oxymoronic; it's just idiomatic expressions/figures of speech.

Also, http://mw1.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia and http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=11217. (this is more of just a neat thing where there are possibilities that this is a hoax). Remember, Dictionary.com and Webster do take common words such as "D'oh" and "LOL" every now and then, so if someone wanted to do an elaborate enough hoax and get it into dictionary.com, which could get it into webster, more power to them.

 

[El Nino]

You can't have something original that has been copied. It's ironic!

Considering that you define an "original" as something from which copies are made, in order for the two terms to be mutually exclusive, it must be taken as a given that it is impossible to make a copy of a copy.

Edit:

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia "Fear of long words"

I don't see how that one is ironic. Wouldn't it be closer to irony if the word was short?

Invisible Ink (Provided by Chaco) "Writing in something thats not visible... That deserves Top Tier."

Well, the definition of "ink" has nothing to do with its visibility.

Soundproof room "A room that you make sound in. Yet it's sound proof."

That's like saying a fire-proof suit is ironic because it doesn't put out the fire; it just prevents the fire from burning through the material. Or how a theft-proof safe doesn't make a thief disappear upon contact.

Act Natural "One must pretend to be his normal self... One crazy paradox"

"Act" also means "behave." When I say, "How was he acting?" I'm not always talking about an actor on stage.

Growing Small (Provided by Chaco) "On the bottom tier because it won't appear too often, but ironic nonetheless..."

"Growing" also means "becoming." As in, "the city grew more decrepit as time went on." Or, "the situation grew tiresome."

Living Dead "The reason we have no Zombies around: They can't figure out which they are..."

...Okay, I'll give you that one.

 

[FearTheMateria]

What's your point exactly?

An original copy of something is usually referred to COPYABLE material (as I stated). You are just going by the literal definition of each word without context. That's why it's not ironic or oxymoronic; it's just idiomatic expressions/figures of speech.

Also, http://mw1.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia and http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=11217. (this is more of just a neat thing where there are possibilities that this is a hoax). Remember, Dictionary.com and Webster do take common words such as "D'oh" and "LOL" every now and then, so if someone wanted to do an elaborate enough hoax and get it into dictionary.com, which could get it into webster, more power to them.

Lol, we can't have a debate argument here! That's for the debate hall! Once I apply for that, i'll post a thread in there to duke out the legitimacy of the word hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (Which is a medical term, so a medical dictionary would be a better reference for it, not webster, ;p) (I mean, really, imagine how freakin huge Webster's dictionary would be if it had all the words of the English language AND every single medical term... It'd be like 100,000 pages and 10 feet tall!)

And also, as you can see, an Oxymoron IS a figure of speech, so every "phrase" up there is an oxymoron, not just "Jumbo Shrimp"


And as for the Original Copy, I suppose since you guys are arguing against is ironic principle so much, it'll just lose it's spot on the tier list. It's settled, lol.

 

[Crimson King]

The word is not in medical dictionaries: http://www.medilexicon.com/medicaldictionary.php and http://www.medterms.com/script/main/srchcont.asp?src=hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

It's called a hoax.

We weren't arguing that oxymorons AREN'T figures of speeches. We were arguing that they weren't ironic as your title suggests.

 

[FearTheMateria]

The word still may as well be in there. A more thorough search for legitimate informational websites led me to find a list of phobias from a California State Universities' Phobia list Find it here!

Under a search with the Ctrl+F button (Or a simple scroll down to the letter "H") will reveal our long word fearing word.

The site itself is old, but the content thereof is still applicable.

The word itself comes back in a .com site (Less likely for true application due to nature of the internet, especially in the .coms) with a list of fears:
Click me!

Oh, and it IS listed in Dictionary.com...See?


On the contrary,
it is shot down by this page in Wikipedia (less accurate) as a joke/fictional phobia:
Right here!
and also, with a better description in wiktionary Here

It also gives a background history of where it might have started and the word that might have been in its place {sesquipedaliophobia)

So therefore the origin of the word and its potientiality for legitimacy is still somewhat uncertain. For arguments sake, I will claim it still exists as a true word.

And as for your claim that the words aren't as ironic as the tread claimed, I say that that is based solely on opinion. And, according to OWL at Purdue, that argument is a fallacy. "See Hasty Generalization"

 

[Mewter]

Invisible Ink (Provided by Chaco) "Writing in something thats not visible... That deserves Top Tier."

Whoever said ink had to be visible? They don't clash. Same goes if I said invisible rhinos. The word gives absolutely NO specifics as to its opaqueness.

Soundproof room "A room that you make sound in. Yet it's sound proof."

Nothing in the definition of room requires that you have to make noises in it. A soundproof room is simply an closed area that more or less blocks sound waves from getting in or out.

Original Copy "I am not sure how something can be original and a copy at the same time." (Moved due to it's "Less ironic" appeal.)

The copy itself is the first copy from which all other copies are made. On face value, this appears ironic, but it really isn't when you take original copy to mean "first copy from which others are derived", which is what it really is, anyways.

Act Natural "One must pretend to be his normal self... One crazy paradox"

This only works if you take "act" in the context of "pretend to be". This can also be taken to mean "behave", though. It depends on how you look at it.

Growing Small (Provided by Chaco) "On the bottom tier because it won't appear too often, but ironic nonetheless..."

The ironicness only qualifies if taken literally as "growing". But it is probably more like "becoming", instead.


I didn't list the others because they seemed ironic enough.

 

[Clownbot]

Terribly wonderful.

 

[Crimson King]

Terribly wonderful.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/terrible - this is just an archaic use of the terrible to mean formidable or awesome. The word Awful, use to also have a positive connotation, like terrible, but it's changed.

 

[El Nino]

"Business ethics."

Edit:

The word still may as well be in there. A more thorough search for legitimate informational websites led me to find a list of phobias from a California State Universities' Phobia list Find it here!

That site is a publication put together by journalism students. The information looks second-hand and not well cited.

I think "sesquipedaliophobia" is the proper term?

 

[Crimson King]

Yes, that is the only "official term" for the condition versus hippotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, which is just done for the sake of being humorous.

It's like how aibohphobia is supposed to be the fear of palindromes.

 

[FearTheMateria]

if you would have followed the links and/or looked at the bottom of my last post, I had mentioned the more plausible term of sesquipedaliophbia. With a reference.

 

[RuNNing Riot]

You know, this thread is 'pretty ugly'. Another one of King Kai's bad jokes.

Oh, and this might be one - what's the difference between 'fat chance' and 'slim chance'? Judging by the words alone, they should be hugely different, but there's very little. And do you think 'token chance' is one? A token is meant to give you a chance, but it implies that you've got very little chance actually.

Maybe you should redo the thread name, by the way. Most of the ironic 'words' here are not just words, but phrases.