The other day, on the road to the library, son RadRob and I saw an elegantly styled car. That observation led to a small debate over the concept of elegance, and in particular brought to us the question of whether or not elegance could ever be ostentatious — or whether the notion of "ostentatiously elegant" is an oxymoron, a self-contradictory juxtaposition.

But then I saw a huge ugly sport utility vehicle, and suddenly the right word for that SUV popped into my head: boxymoronic!

(see also ElegantTechnologies (10 Sep 1999), ...)

TopicHumor - 2002-12-03

(correlates: ElegantTechnologies, TuringComplete, CondescendingComputerUser, ...)