What are these phrases called?

May not be related to copywriting, but connected to English.

Such as LOL is an acronym

I want to know what the phrase ‘land of midnight sun’ is called?

I meant the phrase ….

Thanks for your interest!

 

a "saying"?

 

I don't think so! It should be a word ending with 'nym' .... I thought and I checked with all the .....nyms but I'm not convinced!

 

Sounds like an epithet to me.

 

an Illustrative Metaphor

Illustrative: "clarifying by use of examples"-princeton.edu

Metaphor: "a figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity"-princeton.edu

*APPLAUSE

 

oxymoronic statement?

If you are referring to midnight and sun being contradictory terms. I think it's more of an oxymoron than a paradoxical phrase or paradoxical statement. Non Sequitors also came to mind.

 

webgal! This particular example phrase maybe an oxymoron but I just wanted what these kind of phrases are better called ...the city of joy, the land of camels, city of lakes, land of morning calm...basically these are phrase adjectives right? But thanks for everyone's interest thus far!

Aram

 

The first example could be used in a few different ways. But clarifying in your last post with other examples makes me say you're talking about metaphors here.

 

Adjectives? Phrases aren't referred to as adjectives. If you're referring to a more general term, I'd say they were "sayings".

 

Midnight and sun aren't contradictory terms if they are describing or referring to a Nordic land where midnight sun is truly a common thing.

 

Cliche' was the first thing that came to my mind.

 

Ditto. LOL

 

Trusted writer, good point. I was too rooted in my domain to realize that a midnight sun is common in some places. Where I live, it is a contradiction in terms. I was not in global mode! <grin>

 

I don't think they fit as metaphors. Eg. The land isn't being likened to midnight sun. I would call them adjective phrases too.

 

True, but metaphors fit when put into context with the other examples the OP later gave - such as not literally talking about a "city of lakes." With the first example alone, metaphor doesn't exactly fit because it's often used very literally.

 

Russia is the land of the midnight sun, apparently

Although seriously I'm pretty sure your the word you're thinking of is ambiguous

"Anything that is said to be ambiguous is open to more than one interpretation. Sentences and words that are ambiguous have more than one possible meaning."
I got that quote from
http://www.fun-with-words.com/ambiguities.html
I looked through every category until I reched that one. I'm pretty sure this is correct. This would fit in with every phrase. Good thread!

 

I would say they were epithets too. An epithet is a word or phrase that describes something or someone, and that has become well known and formulaic, like "the Big Apple" or "the windy city".

 

Boy, this sure has made me think of those "fine line" phrases and their definitions.

 

I think of the word colloquialism, but I may be totally thinking of the wrong word.

 

motto or heraldry