Strong weakness

Strong weakness

In Brief

Figure of speech. Lenehan's not very funny pun provokes an equally feeble catchphrase from one of his listeners: "See the wheeze? Rows of cast steel. Gee! / He poked Mr O'Madden Burke mildly in the spleen. Mr O'Madden Burke fell back with grace on his umbrella, feigning a gasp. / — Help! he sighed. I feel a strong weakness." The saying is an instance of the familiar device of oxymoron, a self-contradictory pairing of words.

Read More

The word oxymoron (from Greek oxy- = sharp + moros = dull, stupid) itself exemplifies the paradoxical principle of pairing incompatible words. Of the vast arsenal of Greek-named rhetorical terms, it is unusual in having entered common English usage. (The same is true of another device often employed in literature, metaphor, and to lesser degrees of onomatopoeia, synecdoche, and metonymy.) Most people can tick off some favorite oxymorons: jumbo shrimp, idiot savant, working vacation, freezer burn, same difference, original copy, negative growth, even odds, deafening silence, exact estimate, random order, an open secret, the only choice, a definite maybe, military intelligence.

In a JJON page (www.jjon.org), Harald Beck notes that the phrase "strong weakness" first appeared in the 17th century but became really common in Ireland in the 19th. It was used to describe "cowardice, then love," and finally "the strong national weakness of drink." In More Pricks Than Kicks (1934), Samuel Beckett brought the alcoholic saying back full circle to its origins in rhetorical theory: "He had a strong weakness for oxymoron. In the same way he over-indulged in gin and tonic-water."

John Hunt 2023
Source: sites.google.com.
Source: www.thoughtco.com.