irony

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English

WOTD – 28 February 2008

Etymology 1

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First attested in 1502. From Middle French ironie, from Old French, from Latin īrōnīa, from Ancient Greek εἰρωνεία (eirōneía, “irony, pretext”), from εἴρων (eírōn, “one who feigns ignorance”).

Pronunciation

Noun

irony (countable and uncountable, plural ironies)

  2. (rhetoric) The quality of a statement that, when taken in context, may actually mean something different from, or the opposite of, what is written literally; the use of words expressing something other than their literal intention, often in a humorous context.[1]
    • Langley, A Manual of the Figures of Rhetoric, , Doncaster: Printed by C. White, Baxter-Gate, →OCLC, page 11:
      Irony, saying what it ne'er intends,
      Censures with praise, and speaks to foes as friends.      ]
    1. (countable) An ironic statement.
  3. Dramatic irony: a theatrical effect in which the meaning of a situation, or some incongruity in the plot, is understood by the audience, but not by the characters in the play.
  4. Socratic irony: ignorance feigned for the purpose of confounding or provoking an antagonist.
  5. (informal)[2][3] Contradiction between circumstances and expectations; condition contrary to what might be expected.
Usage notes
  • Some authorities omit the last sense, "contradiction of circumstances and expectations, condition contrary to what might be expected";[3] however, it has been in common use since the 1600s.[4]
  • Irony involving human folly is sometimes viewed as a highest or deepest form of irony, but the idea that it is the only true form of irony is prescriptive rather than descriptive. Defining the word is a challenging endeavor grappling with polysemy, as explored in the Wikipedia article at irony § The problem of definition.
Derived terms
terms derived from irony
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See also

References

  1. ^ Specktor, Brandon (2018 November 3) “Dictionary Editors Say This Is the Most Misused Word in the English Language”, in Reader's Digest‎, Trusted Media Brands, Inc., retrieved 4 November 2018: “Situational irony occurs when, as the Oxford English Dictionary defines it, 'a state of affairs or an event… seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often wryly amusing as a result.'”
  2. ^ Harris, Bob (2008 June 30) “Isn’t It Ironic? Probably Not”, in The New York Times‎, retrieved 2011-01-06
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 ironic, TheFreeDictionary.com, accessed 4 November 2011: The words ironic, irony, and ironically are sometimes used of events and circumstances that might better be described as simply "coincidental" or "improbable," in that they suggest no particular lessons about human vanity or folly. Thus 78 percent of the Usage Panel rejects the use of ironically in the sentence In 1969 Susie moved from Ithaca to California where she met her husband-to-be, who, ironically, also came from upstate New York. Some Panelists noted that this particular usage might be acceptable if Susie had in fact moved to California in order to find a husband, in which case the story could be taken as exemplifying the folly of supposing that we can know what fate has in store for us. By contrast, 73 percent accepted the sentence Ironically, even as the government was fulminating against American policy, American jeans and videocassettes were the hottest items in the stalls of the market, where the incongruity can be seen as an example of human inconsistency.
  4. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “irony”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Etymology 2

From Middle English hyrony, yreny, yrony, yrunny, equivalent to iron +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

Adjective

irony (comparative more irony, superlative most irony)

  1. Of or pertaining to the metal iron.
    The food had an irony taste to it.
    The scrap yard had bins marked for irony aluminum, such as aluminum engine blocks not wholly cleaned of bolts, studs, brackets, and so on.
    • 1860, William Somerville Orr, The Circle of the Sciences, page 269:
      Thus in Cornwall, and many parts of Germany and France, in mineral districts, an irony appearance of a vein, where seen at the crop, is regarded as favourable.
    • 1916, Report, volume 24, New Hampshire. State Department of Health, page 256:
      E. W. Baker, Main St. - No odor, good appearance, slight irony taste; pressure weak. But water which had stood in wash pitcher some three or four days showed pronounced odor.
    • 1919, William Cowper Brann, The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast, volume 11, page 41:
      There can be no doubt that persistent biking robs the female limb of its graceful contour and substitutes therefore the rugged protrusive muscles, the ungainly and irony look of the masculine leg.
    • 1927, “Minutes of Evidence Taken Before the Royal Commission on Agriculture”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), Great Britain. Royal Commission on Agriculture in India, page 210:
      It eventually causes a particularly hard irony surface to the soil which is perfectly unmistakable once you have seen it , and also certain weeds which are also unmistakable once you have seen them.
    • 2012, Jenny Joseph, Led By The Nose: A Garden of Smells:
      Raspberries raw, stewing, jamming, pulping, take over my house during July, overlaying the richer, more irony smell of the blackcurrant – a contralto to a soprano.
    • 2016, Shazia Ameerun, A First Move:
      There was nothing left, besides just the pile of files on my desk, and the irony look on Catherine's face.
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