paradoxical

Etymology

It is formed from English paradox + -ical.^[2][3][4][5] Paradox, recorded from the 1530s, is from Middle French paradoxe and directly Latin paradoxum (“a seemingly absurd but true statement”),^[4][2] from the neuter of the adjective Ancient Greek παράδοξος (parádoxos, “contrary to expectation, incredible”), used as a noun.^[4][6][2] The Greek adjective is formed from παρά (pará, “beside, contrary to”) and δόξα (dóxa, “opinion, expectation”),^[6][4][7] from δοκέω (dokéō, “to appear, seem, think”),^[4][7] from Proto-Indo-European *dek- (“to take, accept”).^[4][7] The adjectives paradoxal (1560s) and paradoxial (1620s) competed with it but survive, if at all, only in narrow uses,^[4] and paradoxic is later.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Contrary to common opinion: 1598, in Florio's Italian–English dictionary A Worlde of Wordes.^[2] Merriam-Webster also dates the word to 1598,^[8][9] and Etymonline to the 1580s.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, "contrary to received opinion", died out in the early 19th century.^[2] In 1599 the word was applied to people fond of paradox,^[2] while from 1638 it meant "seemingly self-contradictory, though in fact true", the main modern sense;^[2][4] Etymonline dates "inconsistent with itself" to the 1630s.^[4] In 1646 Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica used it of a phenomenon at odds with the known laws of nature,^[2] and Johnson (1755) defined it as "having the nature of a paradox", quoting the same work.^[10] Medicine adopted it in 1886 for a finding contrary to what is expected,^[2] as in a paradoxical pulse,^[9] a use the OED compares with German paradoxer Puls (Kussmaul, 1873).^[2] In physiology paradoxical sleep, the rapid eye movement phase of sleep, is recorded from 1962, after French phase paradoxale (1959).^[2]

Timeline

• 1598 – contrary to common opinion (obsolete by 1825).^[2][8]
• 1599 – of a person, fond of or given to paradox.^[2]
• 1638 – seemingly inconsistent with itself or with reason, though true.^[2][4]
• 1646 – of a phenomenon, in conflict with known laws.^[2]
• 1886 – in medicine, contrary to what is expected or normal.^[2]
• 1962 – paradoxical sleep, the rapid eye movement phase.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the nature of a paradox; seeming to contradict itself or common sense, though possibly true: It seems paradoxical that the shortest route took the longest time.^[8][2][3]
2. Of a person, inclined to paradoxes.^[8][9][2]
3. (medicine) Not of the normal or expected kind, as a drug reaction opposite to the usual one.^[9][2]
4. (physiology) Of sleep, belonging to the rapid eye movement phase.^[2]

Word family

• paradoxicality
• paradoxically
• paradoxicalness
• nonparadoxical
• ultraparadoxical
• unparadoxical
• paradoxical sleep

Related words

• paradox
• orthodox
• heterodox
• doxology

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.