Is there a word that describes that something has been named "incorrectly" on purpose (a sort of intentional misnomer)? For example, calling someone who is very tall Shorty (or something to that effect).
Asked
Active
Viewed 2,362 times
3 Answers
8
If the intentional misnomer disparages something positive (as, arguably, calling a tall person Shorty does), it qualifies as a dysphemism. From The Oxford Companion to the English Language (1992):
DYSPHEMISM In rhetoric, the use of a negative or disparaging expression to describe something or someone, such as calling a Rolls-Royce a jalopy. A cruel or offensive dysphemism is a cacophemism.
Another candidate (though not quite so apt) from the same source is meiosis:
MEIOSIS In rhetoric, a kind of understatement that dismisses or belittles, especially by using terms that make something seem less significant than it really is or ought to be: for example, calling a serious wound a scratch, or a journalist a hack or a scribbler.
Sven Yargs
- 163,267
-
I guess I'm thinking of a less disparaging tone, but cool word! – batpigandme Jun 21 '13 at 22:09
-
Plus one for "rhetoric"! – rhetorician Jun 22 '13 at 23:12
-
1I would simply add, or add simply, whichever you prefer, that naming something wrongly and intentionally is a mild form of irony and is sometimes totally lacking in imagination. Calling a tall person "Shorty," or a milquetoast "Tiger" is just too facile! – rhetorician Jun 22 '13 at 23:28
5
Antiphrasis! Sometimes conflated with litotes.
Antiphrasis
the usually ironic or humorous use of words in senses opposite to the generally accepted meanings (as in "this giant of 3 feet 4 inches")
Decapitated Soul
- 16,598
Emily
- 51
1
How about malicious malapropism?
[While a malapropism is usually unintentional, the adjective suggests the deliberate twist.]
bib
- 72,782
-
-
1
-
1
-
Jocular malapropism is perfect (though I definitely plan on making use of mischievous malapropism when I'm feeling alliterative...) – batpigandme Jun 22 '13 at 00:19