"Irony" Doesn't Mean The Same Thing As "Coincidence"

Not to get all English teacher-y on your asses, but no, it doesn't.  Nevertheless, people tend to use the same words interchangeably because they don't pay attention.  For the convenience of my rabid readers, I have posted the Dictionary.com definitions of those words here:

Irony - An outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected.

Coincidence - A striking occurrence of two or more events at one time apparently by mere chance.

When something occurs that is ironic, there is/are concrete reasons for the occurrence to be unexpected.  An author who hates to read would be an example of irony, for it would be reasonable to expect that a person who writes books would have developed that craft through an enthusiasm for reading.  

By contrast, two people who discover that they share the same birthday and who label this situation as "ironic" are incorrect.  This is nothing but a mere coincidence.  Granted, the probability of any two people sharing a birthday is relatively low, but only probability makes this so, and so it's a coincidence.  Furthermore, when one discovers that they share a birthday with another, it can't be the opposite of what one expects.  Did you expect the person to be born on April 12th, or December 9th?  These aren't reasonable expectations.

So, sorry Alanis, but, "A No-Smooohoohking Sign On Your Cigarette Brea-ayay-ak..." is not ironic, because No Smoking signs are everywhere; in fact, it would be expected to see them.

Thank you for reading, and let us use the word correctly, not so much for our children's generation, but for our own.  

Here are some other terms that people tend to fuck up:

"I couldn't care less about Josh's blog" vs. "I could care less..." which one is correct to say when trying to sound dismissive?

Correct answer: THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE SAYING!  If you "could care less" that means you already care!  That's why I take it as a compliment when people say that they could care less about me.  If you "can't care less," that means you already care so little that you have no capacity to go lower on the care scale.

New topic -- Consider this sentence. 

"Joe became disenfranchised with his native country of Steinland after he saw firsthand how poorly it treated foreigners."

Q: Who wrote this sentence?

A: Someone who doesn't know what disenfranchised means.

Disenfranchise - To deprive a person of a right of citizenship, such as the right to vote.

Is that what's going on here?  No.  What this person probably meant to write was:

Disenchant - To free from illusion or false belief; disillusion.

You're welcome,

Blogstein