Guest Curmudgeon Darcy
says...
The word ironic is used incorrectly so often.
People seem to confuse it with coincidental. Alanis Morissette wrote an entire song of
incorrect examples of irony. Maybe an understanding of where this word came from would
help people better understand how to use the word.
Yes, we know that song by
Alanis Morrissette: "An old man turned 98. He won the lottery
and died the next day. It's a black fly in your chardonnay.
It's a death row pardon two minutes too late. Isn't it
ironic?" You're right, Darcy. Irony is something entirely
different. In its usage notes, the American Heritage Dictionary
acknowledges exactly what you have said, suggesting that many people use ironic
to mean coincidental. Here are the example sentences cited in
the usage notes:
"In 1969 Susie moved
from Ithaca to California where she met her husband-to-be, who,
ironically, also came from upstate New York." The usage panel
rejected that use of ironic. However, they accepted the
following usage: "Ironically, even as the government was fulminating
against American policy, American jeans and videocassettes were the
hottest items in the stalls of the market." The difference here
is, according to the dictionary, that irony should suggest a lesson
"about human vanity or folly".
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