Figure of speech. Lenehan's not very funny pun
provokes an equally feeble catchphrase from one of his
listeners: "See the wheeze? Rows of cast steel. Gee! / He
poked Mr O'Madden Burke mildly in the spleen. Mr O'Madden
Burke fell back with grace on his umbrella, feigning a gasp. /
— Help! he sighed. I feel a strong weakness." The
saying is an instance of the familiar device of oxymoron,
a self-contradictory pairing of words.
The word oxymoron (from Greek oxy- = sharp + moros
= dull, stupid) itself exemplifies the paradoxical principle
of pairing incompatible words. Of the vast arsenal of
Greek-named rhetorical terms, it is unusual in having entered
common English usage. (The same is true of another device
often employed in literature, metaphor, and to lesser
degrees of onomatopoeia, synecdoche,
and metonymy.)
Most people can tick off some favorite oxymorons: jumbo
shrimp, idiot savant, working vacation, freezer burn, same
difference, original copy, negative growth, even odds,
deafening silence, exact estimate, random order, an open
secret, the only choice, a definite maybe, military
intelligence.
In a JJON page (www.jjon.org), Harald Beck notes that
the phrase "strong weakness" first appeared in the 17th
century but became really common in Ireland in the 19th. It
was used to describe "cowardice, then love," and finally "the
strong national weakness of drink." In More Pricks Than
Kicks (1934), Samuel Beckett brought the alcoholic
saying back full circle to its origins in rhetorical theory:
"He had a strong weakness for oxymoron. In the same way he
over-indulged in gin and tonic-water."
