Credit to Mrs Irvine who has opened me up to this wonderful world. I should be revising for my end of years but instead I’m doing this, thank you Mrs Irvine.
OXYMORON
The first word I was introduced to (credit to Mrs Irvine again) was the word oxymoron. An oxymoron is when a pair of contrasting words used together, so the words ‘old news’, ‘deafening silence’ and ‘humble brag’ are all oxymorons .
The word oxymoron comes from two Greek words οξύς (oxys) and μορος (moros). The word οξύς means ‘sharp’, refering to either the senses or to swords, but in this case senses, and the word μορος means ‘stupid’ (if you take Greek GCSE you’d know that).
The word oxymoron literally means, ‘sharpstupid’, so the word oxymoron literally is an oxymoron, which makes it an autological word.
AUTOLOGICAL
An autological word is a word which describes itself, like oxymoron. There are quite a lot of autological words used in everyday life, for example the word ‘word’ is autological (fairly self explanatory), and as is the word ‘English’ (I mean, it’s not French).
The word autological comes from two Greek words, αὐτος (autos) and λογος (logos). The word αὐτος (autos) means a number of things, but in this case it means ‘self’ and the word λογος (logos) means ‘word’ or ‘story’, but in this case ‘story’.
Which means the word autological means ‘self-story’, or a word which tells its story. So the word autological itself is actually, autological.
METALOGICAL
This is a word which many of you may have met in GCSE English, but for those who still have their childhoods intact and unscarred, a metalogical word describes a part of language which describes its function. So for example, in ‘Macbeth’ (English teachers please appreciate) when Macbeth is acting and says ‘the world’s a stage’, this is meta-theatre, as Macbeth is acting, whilst describing acting.
The word metalogical comes from two Greek (again – you should really learn Greek) words μετα (meta) and λογος (logos). The word μετα (meta) means ‘with’ or ‘about’, and in this case it means ‘about’. Whilst, as many of you will (hopefully) remember (if I have done my job correctly and you have actually learnt stuff), the word λογος (logos) means ‘word’, or ‘story’ (autological, guys, this is from the bit on autological words, not even 20 lines above), in this case it means word.
So the word metalogical literally means ‘about-word’. Meaning, it too, is an autological word.
MONEPIC
Another word that I found after Mrs Irvine had kindly shown me this rabbit hole and I had fallen into it, is monepic. Something which is monepic consists of only one word or phrase, so words like ‘cool’, ‘I agree’ and ‘excuse me’ are monepic.
The word monepic come from two (can you guess it?) Greek words, μονος (monos) and ἐπος (epos). The word μονος (monos) which means ‘only’ (thank you handy Greek textbook sitting next to me), and the word ἐπος (epos) which means ‘speech’ or ‘word’, either work in this case, as both apply.
So the word monepic can either mean ‘only-word’ or ‘only-speech’, and consists of a monepic word to describe this, making it autological.
PENTASYLLABIC
This is another cool autological word. A pentasyllabic word is a word containing five syllables, so words like abomination, geometrical and manipulative.
The word pentasyllabic comes from two Greek words (pretty much all words come from Greek in some way or the other – take Greek!) πεντα (penta) which means ‘five’ and συλλαβη (sullabe) which means ‘syllable’.
Pentasyllabic, however is not autological in meaning. The thing which makes it autological is the fact that the word itself contains five syllables. So the word for a five syllable word is a five syllable word itself.
HETEROLOGICAL
This is the final word of five, and probably the coolest (aka it’s my favourite). A heterological word is the opposite of an autological word, a word which doesn’t describe itself, so ‘yellow’, or ‘verb’ (the word itself is a noun) and ‘French’ (it’s English…).
Heterological comes from two Greek (surprise surprise) words ἑτερο (hetero) and λόγος (logos) (side note – who else thinks that Greek really likes this word? – I definitely do). The word ἑτερο (hetero) means ‘other’ and the word λόγος (logos) means ‘word’ or ‘story’ (you should really know this by now – I mean, 3/5 words we’ve covered have λόγος (logos) in them).
So the word heterological literally means ‘other-story’, so a word which tells another story.
But here’s the confusing bit. Is the word ‘heterological’ autological? If yes, then that means the word heterological describes itself, which in turn means that it is not autological, as the word ‘heterological’ refers to a word which does not describe itself. And if no then the word ‘heterological’ is heterological, so therefore does actually describe itself, which means it’s autological.
Welcome to the Grelling-Nelson paradox (another rabbit hole).
So the next time someone uses an autological word, you can shout ‘autological’ at them, and have the joy of explaining all this, and trapping them in this rabbit hole cycle too.
You’re welcome.
