The rhetorical term oxymoron, made up of two Greek words meaning "sharp" and "dull," is itself oxymoronic.
As you probably remember from school, an oxymoron is a compressed paradox: a figure of speech in which seemingly contradictory terms appear side by side. British writer Thomas Gibbons characterized the figure as "sense in the masquerade of folly."
The oxymoron has also been called "the show-off" figure, one that gives voice to life's inherent conflicts and incongruities.
But then all of that may be old news to you.
Like other kinds of figurative language, oxymorons (or oxymora) are often found in literature.
However, as shown by this list of 100 awfully good examples, oxymorons are also part of our everyday speech.