antiphrasis

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun the use of a word in a sense opposite to its normal sense (especially in irony)

Borrowed from Late Latin antiphrasis, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek ἀντίφρασις (antíphrasis) (< phrazein "declare").

Some others, again, have obtained their denominations by way of antiphrasis, or contrariety; as Absinth, because it is contrary to Psinthos, for it is bitter to the taste in drinking; Holosteon, as if it were all bones, whilst, on the contrary, there is no frailer, tenderer, nor brittler herb in the whole production of nature than it. — Gargantua and Pantagruel, François Rabelais

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