Kiran Jonnalagadda’s Blog

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Single word oxymorons are the best.

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  sutanu — May 24, 2005 7:04:58 PM — # ↩

  i think the use of red cross symbol has been banned, still many doc use it....
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    Kiran Jonnalagadda — May 25, 2005 2:06:49 AM — # ↩

    Not banned. It’s only illegal by trademark law, and if you ask me, Red Cross hasn’t a chance of winning in court. Their trademark is already too diluted.
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  kshah — May 25, 2005 1:46:36 AM — # ↩

  Ummm… It does say ‘TOTAL TOOTH CARE’ on top.
  
  And there are various different types of teeth and teeth-related care activities (gums, braces, etc.)
  
  So I guess it’s more of a tautology than an oxymoron?
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    Kiran Jonnalagadda — May 25, 2005 2:04:23 AM — # ↩

    Come on, multispeciality? One half of the word contradicts the implication of the other.
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  vaishaksuresh — May 26, 2005 4:31:09 PM — # ↩

  Speciality in multiple aspects of dentistry! what contradicts what?
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    Kiran Jonnalagadda — May 26, 2005 4:43:15 PM — # ↩

    So why not simply say “Speciality in Dentistry”? Doesn’t that cover all aspects? The board does say “total tooth care”, implying all aspects of dentistry.
    
    The word “speciality” contradicts the prefix “multi”.
    
    Multispeciality is a fake word (it isn’t even in the dictionary) that attempts to marry the aura of the “specialist” with the all-encompassing sense of “multi”. Sadly enough (or luckily enough), most people never notice the oxymoron. An oxymoron isn’t necessarily wrong; it’s just a conjunction of contradictory words.