אירוניה (ironia) — irony

Etymology

The Hebrew word אירוניה is borrowed, like its counterparts in most modern languages, from the Greek εἰρωνεία (eironeia). The Greek word derives from the verb εἴρω ("to say") and originally described a specific type of comic character in Greek theater: the eiron, who deliberately understated his own knowledge or ability. Socrates' philosophical method — professing ignorance while leading interlocutors to expose their own — was called irony by his contemporaries, and it annoyed them enough that they eventually executed him.

The word passed into Latin as ironia, initially retaining its Greek theatrical sense. Over time it shifted to denote the general rhetorical device of saying one thing while meaning another — usually the opposite. This is the sense that spread through Renaissance Europe and into modern languages, including Hebrew.

The column's primary example of irony in the Bible: Elijah the prophet taunting the prophets of Baal — "Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened" (1 Kings 18:27). Elijah does not mean what he says; he is using saying one thing to communicate its opposite.

In 1833, the English bishop and historian Connop Thirlwall published an essay on the use of irony in Sophocles and introduced two new senses that have since become standard: dramatic irony (the gap between what a character knows and what the audience knows — e.g., a horror film character approaching a door behind which the audience knows a monster lurks) and situational irony (a state of affairs radically at odds with expectations — e.g., a fire station burning down). These senses spread rapidly in English and then in other languages.

In modern usage, אירוניה has become widely misused to describe any unfortunate or coincidental situation, even without any gap between expectation and reality. The linguist Haim Sokolov complained as early as 1934 that words like אירוניה were being used confusedly. Today, Hebrew speakers often use ציניות (cynicism) where they mean אירוניה, and vice versa. Cynicism — from the Greek Cynics, philosophers who rejected social conventions and lived "like dogs" (cynos = dog) — properly refers to a worldview in which people act only from self-interest, not to verbal irony. Yet in Israeli Hebrew, ציני has become the standard word for "ironic" since at least the 1940s.

The Even-Shoshan dictionary defines אירוניה as "light, partly concealed mockery," which is accurate only for rhetorical irony and not for the other types. Sarcasm (סַרְקַזְם, from Greek sarkazein, "to bite flesh") is a specific, biting subtype of rhetorical irony, not synonymous with it. A gentler type of irony — using a word meaning the opposite of what is meant as a form of euphemism (e.g., calling a cemetery בֵּית חַיִּים, "house of the living") — is called in Hebrew לְשׁוֹן סַגִּי נְהוֹר, after the Talmudic Aramaic euphemism for a blind person: "of great light."

Key Quotes

"קִרְאוּ בְקוֹל גָּדוֹל כִּי אֱלֹהִים הוּא כִּי שִׂיחַ וְכִי שִׂיג לוֹ וְכִי דֶרֶךְ לוֹ אוּלַי יָשֵׁן הוּא וְיִקָץ" — Elijah to the prophets of Baal, 1 Kings 18:27

Timeline

• Ancient Greece: εἰρωνεία describes the eiron character type in comedy; Socrates' method is labeled "irony"
• Roman period: ironia enters Latin, gradually shifting to mean "saying one thing, meaning another"
• Renaissance: Modern rhetorical sense of irony spreads through European languages
• 1833: Bishop Connop Thirlwall introduces dramatic irony and situational irony in his essay on Sophocles
• Mid-19th century onward: New senses spread through English, then other languages
• 1934: Hebrew linguist Haim Sokolov complains about confused use of אירוניה and related terms
• 1940s+: ציני begins to be used in Hebrew where the correct word would be אירוני
• 1995: Alanis Morissette's song "Ironic" illustrates the degradation of the word in popular use

Related Words

• סַרְקַזְם — sarcasm; biting subtype of irony, from Greek "to bite flesh"
• ציניות — cynicism; a different concept (worldview of self-interest), routinely confused with irony in Hebrew
• לְשׁוֹן סַגִּי נְהוֹר — Talmudic/Hebrew term for the use of opposites as euphemism (a type of irony)
• פַּתוֹס — pathos; related Greek word for emotion/suffering