Latin

Adjective

oxymōrus m ‎(feminine oxymōra, neuter oxymōrum); first/second declension

1. oxymoronic; of or pertaining to a figure of speech in which two words with opposing meanings are used together intentionally for effect, as in the following:

   63 BCE, Cicero, Catiline Orations (Latin text and English translations here). Cic. Catil. 1.8.21

   de te autem, Catilina, cum quiescunt, probant, cum patiuntur, decernunt, cum tacent, clamant.

   But to you, Catiline, by keeping quiet they approve, by allowing me to speak they vote, by their silence they shout out loud.

Inflection

First/second declension.

Quotations

• Commentary on the Aeniad of Virgil, Serv. A. 7.295 by M. Servius Honoratius, fl. circa 488

"capti potvere capi cum felle dictum est: nam si hoc removeas, erit oxymorum."

References

• oxymorus in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “oxymorus”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.