Antiphrasis

An antiphrasis or antiphrase (Greek) is a figure of speech that is supposed to express the opposite of what the word actually means, or that gives an object a name that contradicts its essence.

An antiphrasis can refer to a single word, phrase, or section of speech. The antiphrasis is a special form of irony , and a special form of the antiphrasis in turn can be the euphemism (which does not necessarily have to be used as irony).

Examples

• A nice mess
• Eumenids ("gracious") for goddesses of revenge
• take advantage of

literature

• Dilwyn Knox: Ironia. Medieval and Renaissance ideas on irony , New York 1989, pp. 158–169 (partly available from Google Books ).