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Irony is when you express an idea using words that normally have the opposite meaning. That's not what's happening here. This is autology - a word that describ
by Blahah 13y ago
Irony is when you express an idea using words that normally have the opposite meaning. That's not what's happening here.
This is autology - a word that describes itself.
- gjm11 13y agoI don't think "irony" is so bad here. The third meaning of "irony" in the OED is: 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. I don't think that's so far out -- one might (if not thinking clearly) expect that if one of "calque" and "loanword" is a calque and one is a loanword, they should be "the right way round", so the fact that they aren't is ironic in an only-slightly-extended sense. But, speaking of autology: Call an adjective "autological" if it describes itself (examples: "recondite", "pentasyllabic"), and "heterological" if it doesn't (examples: "Greek", "monosyllabic"). Is "heterological" autological or heterological? (This little paradox is rather old, and in particular I didn't make it up. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grelling%E2%80%93Nelson_paradox. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grelling%E2%80%93Nelson_parado...)
- jessaustin 13y agoIt makes me wonder if they didn't make up the word "heterological" from whole cloth, just to dress up the actually ancient Liar Paradox. b^)