Tuesday's Word

irony* \'i-re-ne\ n, pl -nies [L ironia, fr. Gk eironia, fr. eiron dissembler] 1 : a pretense of ignorance and of unwillingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other's false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning -- also called Socratic irony 2 a : the use of words to express something other than and esp. the opposite of the literal meaning b : a usu. humorous or sardonic literary style or form characterized by irony c : an ironic expression or utterance 3 a (1) : incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result (2) an event or result marked by such incongruity b : incongruity between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play -- called also dramatic irony, tragic irony 4 : an attitude of attached awareness of incongruity syn see WIT

Irony's best use may be described by making reference to the tragic election of 2004, as in, "How could oil trash be elected to President?" Simple: frighten inbred, bible thumpin', ignorant cousin grabbin', country music Republicans inta doin' yor biddi'!