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Shrimp are supposed to be small. Why are some called "jumbo"?

2007-03-17 19:12:06 · 8 answers · asked by stlouis4urunowut 2 in Education & Reference Words & Wordplay

8 answers

its funny to me cos i once gave the nickname "jumbo shrimp" to a girl from school. and before i knew plenty of people where calling her "jumbo shrimp" behind her back.

2007-03-17 19:22:41 · answer #1 · answered by jonsinher 4 · 0 1

Uh, no.

I don't know why people always say this. "Jumbo shrimp" is not an oxymoron. The meaning of the noun shrimp refers to a sea creature, the crustacean. No matter how large it is -- and some shrimp is quite large -- a shrimp is small compared to most things. So people started using the word as a slang term to mean small, rather like a nickname. But proper usage of the word only means the crustacean!! The true definition doesn't mean small and doesn't rule out the phrase "jumbo shrimp." The word "jumbo" is being used as an adjective to describe the crustacean - so what? I've eaten some pretty huge shrimp, haven't you? People who think that term is funny or contradictory are either weird or a bit ignorant.

2007-03-17 19:28:06 · answer #2 · answered by geoxena 3 · 0 0

Jumbo shrimp is basically a specie of shrimp.

2007-03-17 19:21:39 · answer #3 · answered by kooldude 1 · 0 1

Oxymoron is a funny thing as well.

The phrase "jumbo shrimp" is an example of oxymoron, which is the combining opposite or seemingly contradictory terms.

Good Luck....

2007-03-17 19:21:30 · answer #4 · answered by Teacher Man 6 · 0 1

i do not keep in mind putting forward this, yet even as i replaced into 3, again in the 1970s, my mom stopped at a convenience shop. there have been a number of black adult adult males out the front, and that i frolicked the window and yelled "Soul prepare". of route, I had no longer been uncovered to everybody different than my kin on the time. it really is nonetheless fairly humorous even if.

2016-11-26 20:05:34 · answer #5 · answered by ? 4 · 0 0

That's called an "oxymoron", where the two parts of the term seem to oppose each other.

2007-03-17 19:20:22 · answer #6 · answered by TitoBob 7 · 1 1

No it isn`t, perhaps the shrimp took growth hormones and became really, really big.

2007-03-17 19:28:08 · answer #7 · answered by flamingo 6 · 0 1

No - Government Intelligence is the funniest!

2007-03-17 19:14:36 · answer #8 · answered by Gatekeeper 4 · 0 1

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