单词 | irony |
释义 | ironyn. 1. Originally 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. Compounds 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). ΘΚΠ the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > derision, ridicule, or mockery > caustic or ironic ridicule > [noun] irony1502 pike sauce1519 quipping1578 sarcasm1579 satire1634 ironing1742 sarc1926 society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > figure of speech > figures of meaning > [noun] > irony irony1502 ironia?1541 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 S. 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. ΘΚΠ the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > derision, ridicule, or mockery > caustic or ironic ridicule > [noun] > instance of gesta1387 quippy1519 quip1532 irony1534 nip1549 taunta1566 slent?1567 gamegall1577 yark1577 veny1586 jerk1590 wipe1596 glance1602 satire1606 by-wipe1641 quib1656 trait1704 skit1727 slant1825 ironism1842 wiper1846 by-quip1855 satirization1868 snapper1890 crack1896 the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > wit, wittiness > wit with words > irony > [noun] > instance of irony1534 society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > figure of speech > figures of meaning > [noun] > irony > an ironical expression irony1534 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 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. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > deceit, deception, trickery > dissimulation, pretence > [noun] foxingc1220 feignc1320 faintise1340 simulation1340 dissimulingc1374 likenessc1384 dissimulationc1386 coverture1393 dissemblationc1425 assimulationa1450 dissemblec1480 fiction1483 dissemblinga1500 irony1502 dissimulance1508 dissembly?c1550 blindation1588 counterfeisance1590 misseeming1590 supposing1596 dissemblance1602 guise1662 dissimulating1794 make-believe1794 representation1805 sham-Abra(ha)m1828 make-belief1837 pretence1862 make-believing1867 postiche1876 kid-stakes1916 smoke and mirrors1980 the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > wit, wittiness > wit with words > irony > [noun] irony1502 the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > ancient Greek philosophy > post-Socratic philosophy > [noun] > philosophy of Socrates > elements of irony1605 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 F. 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 . View more context for this quotation 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 (London 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. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > expectation > surprise, unexpectedness > [noun] > cause of surprise > contradictory outcome paradox1678 irony1833 backfire1925 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. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022). ironyadj.ΘΚΠ the world > the earth > minerals > mineral sources > [adjective] > yielding a mineral or metal > iron ironya1382 ferreous1646 ferruginous1659 ferrugineous1671 ironized1780 iron-shot1794 ferriferous1796 society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > metal > iron > [adjective] ironya1522 iron1549 ferreal1599 ferrical1612 ferrean1656 ferrous1755 sideric1830 ferric1858 a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) (1961) Deut. xxviii. 23 Be heuene þat is aboue þe brasny [a1425 L.V. brasun] & þe lond þat þou tredyst hyrony [a1425 Corpus Oxf. yrony, a1425 L.V. yrun, 1611 King James of iron; L. ferrea]. ?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 92v Be it [sc. the ear] wasshed wiþ oximelle or wiþ wyne and hony or wiþ yreny water [*Ch.(2): water of yren; L. aqua ferrata]. a1522 G. Douglas tr. Virgil Æneid (1959) x. xii. 140 The cauld and irny [L. ferreus] slepe of dethys stres. 1582 R. Stanyhurst tr. Psalmes Dauid ii, in tr. Virgil First Foure Bookes Æneis 87 From oure persons pluck we there yrnye yokes. 2. Containing iron, esp. in chemically combined form; (also) resembling iron compounds in taste, colour, etc. ΚΠ 1764 Gentleman's Mag. & Hist. Chron. June 266/2 It [sc. ocre] is a ponderous irony earth. 1843 J. E. Portlock Rep. Geol. Londonderry 541 Sulphate of barytes, associated with irony quartz. 1875 G. MacDonald Malcolm II. xviii. 243 Crystals of a clear irony brown. 1963 C. L. McGuinness Role Ground Water in National Water Situation 173 The largest area of hard, irony water is the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. 2009 F. Meredith Unfinished Work 223 She sucked the droplets of blood from the fleshy part of her thumb, but the irony taste only increased her frustration. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022). < n.1502adj.a1382 |
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