antiphrase
See also: Antiphrase
English
Noun
antiphrase (plural antiphrases)
- A word or phrase used in a sense that is different to its literal or usual meaning.
- 1946, Jack McLaren, The Oldest Inhabitants, quoted in An Australian Muster, page 10:
- [T]he first man came right up to me and held out his hand in the European manner of greeting, save only that it was the left hand instead of the right, and in an English the most mutilated and full of antiphrases I had ever heard said that he was my friend[.]
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French
Etymology
Borrowed from Late Latin antiphrasis, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek ἀντίφρασις (antíphrasis). Synchronically analysable as anti- + phrasis.
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
Noun
antiphrase f (plural antiphrases)
- (rhetoric) antiphrasis
Further reading
- “antiphrase”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.