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[credit for to this question goes to Ben Hocking, who posted it as an example that seemed to be disagreed upon in Is "certainly possible" an oxymoron? ]

Some web-references (e.g. this one) give the phrase "pretty ugly" as an example of an oxymoron. The meaning of 'pretty' and 'ugly' within the context of the phrase is not contradictory, but a different meaning of those two words is semantically contradictory, which seems to be enough to qualify under this definition for oxymoron:

A rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are combined, as in a deafening silence and a mournful optimist.

(TFD)

Is the phrase "pretty ugly" an oxymoron?

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Spork
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3 Answers3

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No, they are not oxymorons. Oxymorons contain words that have mutually exclusive meanings. Here's a fair description of this.

In your example. "pretty" and "ugly" do not have opposite meanings. The meaning of "pretty" in this sentence is "somewhat". The meaning of "ugly" is "unattractive". "Somewhat" and "unattractive" are perfectly compatible.

Edit (added 30 July 2015):

However, the entry at dictionary.reference.com/browse/oxymoron gives a strict definition involving actual contradiction in meaning (which was the basis I was working on), but then also gives an "in Culture" definition based on apparent contradiction. "Pretty ugly" appears to fall into the second of these categories even if not the first.

Karasinsky
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    The "fair description" you link to actually includes "Pretty ugly" – Spork Jul 17 '15 at 12:28
  • Since the link also includes "pretty fierce" and "pretty cruel", and neither cruel nor fierce are synonyms for "physically unattractive" the shortcomings of the link are pretty clear. Claiming "pretty ugly" as an oxymoron implies only the most superficial understanding of oxymoron, although many people only reach that level. For what it's worth, French does have such an oxymoron, jolie laide ("beautiful ugly") https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jolie_laide. – WhatRoughBeast Jul 17 '15 at 13:59
  • @WhatRoughBeast Au contraire, it seems to me that the people with only the most superficial understanding of the term are the only ones who do not think "pretty ugly" is an oxymoron. It looks like this superficial understanding was so difficult to attain that reasoning seems to stop after attaining it. No definition has yet been given where it would not be an oxymoron. – Spork Jul 17 '15 at 15:30
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    @Spork - To insist that "pretty ugly" is an oxymoron is to ignore the fact that most English words have multiple meaning, and the correct (or at least the intended) meaning is chosen by considering context. From the answer we are commenting on, "the meaning of "pretty" in this sentence is "somewhat". " And, for that matter, I chose my words carefully when I used the phrase "pretty clear". I hope you did not think that I meant "physically attractive clear"? – WhatRoughBeast Jul 17 '15 at 15:51
  • Again, that's exactly the opposite of what I am doing: I am explicitly using the fact that many lemmas are homonyms to prove the point that "pretty ugly" is an oxymoron. Is not not logically contradicting, but it does evoke the feeling of contradiction, which is what seems to define an oxymoron. Handing me any authoritative definition would solve my issue. – Spork Jul 17 '15 at 16:21
  • (for the record: I don't even feel like "pretty ugly" should be an oxymoron, but it definitely seems like it is. Even the upvoted answer that states it isn't relies on a singular source that actually contradicts it. I'm sad to see it still gets upvoted) – Spork Jul 17 '15 at 16:23
  • I apologise for not giving any sources. I've worked professionally in a part of the video and photography industry for 16 years. In it, people from a many linguistic backgrounds use phrases like "pretty ugly", "pretty unattractive", etc, with no rhetorical effect intended by the listener thinking it's a pun on the word "pretty". I could trawl for examples of real world usages and their contexts that support my understanding, but I don't think it would be fair to further test everyone's patience. I'll add more if the question is revised in a way that allows non-discursive replies. – Karasinsky Jul 17 '15 at 19:29
  • @Karasinsky, there are several lists of oxymorons out there, both on-line and off. I know that in my high-school textbook, "pretty ugly" was listed as an oxymoron. Now, having taught high-school physics myself, I know that high-school textbooks have errors in them. However, I also see "pretty ugly" in all but two of the lists of oxymorons I have found, one of which includes "awfully pretty" which falls into the same category. So, other than the Wikipedia list (which used to have it, until an editor removed it), can you locate a list of oxymorons without it or similar oxymorons? – Ben Hocking Jul 23 '15 at 00:14
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    @BenHocking, I'll certainly see if I can find any such lists – Karasinsky Jul 23 '15 at 18:47
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    @BenHocking, a little further searching has found conflicting (and sometimes self-inconsistent) results. More helpful, perhaps, is the entry at http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/oxymoron , which gives a strict definition involving actual contradiction in meaning (which was the basis I was working on), and then also gives an "in Culture" definition based on apparent contradiction. "Pretty ugly" appears to fall into the second of these categories even if not the first. I must admit I learnt something new from this as I'd never come across this apparent contradiction meaning before. – Karasinsky Jul 28 '15 at 23:25
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    @Karasinsky, I think that your answer would be improved by adding that information. As I've mentioned below, I definitely appreciate the difference between true contradiction and apparent contradiction, or even "apparent only if you squint your eyes and shake your head" contradiction. (As in, the contradictions are only "apparent" if you kinda sorta force it.) – Ben Hocking Jul 29 '15 at 11:59
  • @BenHocking many thanks for the suggestion. I've added this information to my answer as I think this indeed takes fuller account of real world usage. – Karasinsky Jul 30 '15 at 13:35
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As "pretty ugly" is a variant for "rather ugly" there is no cause to see it as the literary artistic device of an oxymoron. "pretty ugly" does not mean she is pretty and ugly as well. The meaning is "very/rather ugly".

rogermue
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  • That would be the point of my question, yes. However, under what definition can you say that there is no cause to see it as an oxymoron? Do you have an authoritative reference? – Spork Jul 17 '15 at 13:39
  • Read this site about oxymoron http://literarydevices.net/oxymoron/ – rogermue Jul 17 '15 at 19:11
  • "Oxymoron, plural oxymora, is a figure of speech in which two opposite ideas are joined to create an effect". Exactly what is evoked by 'pretty ugly', which strikes one more than 'quite ugly' because of opposing ideas. – Spork Jul 17 '15 at 19:48
  • @rogermue, the site you provide lists "awfully pretty" as an example of an oxymoron. How does that usage differ from "pretty ugly"? – Ben Hocking Jul 23 '15 at 00:10
  • The evaluation of rhetorical devices is difficult and often you read things on the internet that are simply wrong. "Awfully wrong" appears to be an oxymoron, but awfully is used as an adverb of degree in the sense of very and "very pretty" is no oxymoron. "crying silence" would be an oxymoron. – rogermue Jul 23 '15 at 00:17
  • @rogermue, it's easy to dismiss individual examples as "things on the internet", but I've also mentioned textbooks from more than 30 years ago with "pretty ugly" as an example. And, do you not find it interesting that both answers here cite single sources, both of which contradict their points? I.e., both sites cited for the two answers either directly include "pretty ugly" or they include something similar (e.g., "awfully pretty"). Can you find a site other than Wikipedia that does not? (Note that the Wikipedia site used to include it.) – Ben Hocking Jul 23 '15 at 11:50
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    rogermue, to be clear, I completely understand the distinction you're making, as does @Spork. We're not disagreeing that such a distinction can be made. Nor do we disagree that such a distinction is useful. Merely, it's that I cannot find an authoritative source that makes that distinction. Can you? I would like to see such a source, because I truly believe the distinction that you (and many, many others) have made is useful, I just don't see it supported by usage, either formal or informal. – Ben Hocking Jul 23 '15 at 11:53
  • Sometimes it is time-consuming to search things on the internet. And I must say that oxymora is not something I'm specially interested in. – rogermue Jul 23 '15 at 12:08
  • @rogermue, it would only be time-consuming to find such an example if such an example were time-consuming to find (tautology). It sounds like you're admitting that to be the case then, which only bolsters my point that the vast majority of lists (and it's easy to find lists of oxymorons) do not respect the distinction between "false" and "true" oxymorons. – Ben Hocking Jul 24 '15 at 11:50
  • You should dare to make your own decision and your own definition. – rogermue Jul 24 '15 at 11:54
  • @rogermue, are you suggesting I follow the advice of Lewis Carroll's Humpty Dumpty? http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/12608-when-i-use-a-word-humpty-dumpty-said-in-rather – Ben Hocking Jul 24 '15 at 21:04
  • You see that some lists see "pretty ugly" as oxymoron and that there are also views that don't see it as one. So decide yourself what you think is tbe best view. – rogermue Jul 25 '15 at 01:42
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It depends

I'm late to the party so not sure if anyone will see this, but the existing answers are rather incomplete. "Oxymoron" is not a philosophical or logical term of art;¹ it's a rhetorical one.

Thus saith the OED:

1. Rhetoric. A pair of opposed or markedly contradictory terms placed in conjunction for emphasis.

2. Any contradiction in terms.

The second is metaphorical and irrelevant—the examples given are "the hardworking loafer that is the colonial Dutchman" (1902), "healthful Mexican food" (1989), and "affordable caviar" (1993)—but the first, the word's original sense going back to its first attestation in Servius, is concerned with intent and effect, not logical reasoning.

Of course, "pretty" and "ugly" are usually opposites and, of course, the adverbial sense of "pretty" is a clipping of "prettily" derived from an older sense of "pretty" as intending "cunningly, skillfully, or ably done".

Again, though, it's a rhetorical term: what matters is intent and effect. For a middle school kid, who says it while giggling at its absurdity, to an audience of middle-school kids, who likewise giggle at its absurdity, it's absolutely an oxymoron. For serious writers, skillful and careful about their word choice, like David Foster Wallace in Broom of the System, it's an oxymoron as well. It's an oxymoron as the title of a book on fashion. It's an oxymoron as the title of a biography of a girl with low self-esteem. It's an oxymoron as the title of a book on oxymorons.

But going back to the giggling middle schoolers, the posters at StackExchange are very largely from the group of students who wanted the teacher to know how much smarter we were than the other kids. Stuff like this, where a common belief is turned on its ear, is catnip for us.

So while, yes, "pretty ugly" isn't an oxymoron when said quickly, unthinkingly, and without any intention or effect apart from specifying "not really ugly but not really good looking, either", oxymoron doesn't actually mean paradox² and shouldn't be analyzed as though it does.

¹ That said, Wikipedia being what it is, "oxymoron" is part of its "index of logic articles".

² Obviously, that's for the technical logical sense of paradox that OP and the other posters were applying when stating "pretty ugly" could never be an oxymoron based on its semantic content. Informally, people sometimes treat them as synonyms, although one is a logical concept and the other a rhetorical device.

lly
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