Word of the DayMonday, August 21, 2000
contradistinction
\kon-truh-dis-TINK-shuhn\ , noun:1.
Distinction by contrast; as, "sculpture in contradistinction to painting."
Quotes:
In the quarter-century since "Gravity's Rainbow," American novelists have increasingly fixed their boldest inventions in the past, usually their own early years or a time long before they were born -- in contradistinction to postwar writers who vigorously peeled away World War II and the social fabric of the 1950's.
-- Gary Giddins, "Escape to New York", New York Times, September 20, 1998
The music was breathing constantly, in contradistinction to the willfully suffocated feeling of most heavy music.
-- Ben Ratliff, "A Brazilian Band Emerges From the Loss of Its Leader", New York Times, July 28, 2000
Origin:
Contradistinction is contra-, from Latin contra, "against" + distinction, from Latin distinctio, from distinguere, "to distinguish."
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