by Kevin Burton
Imagine if you will, a Richard Pryor bit from the 70s, that could have been, to introduce the concept of the contranym, a word with two opposite meanings.
These lines are from the family puppy, whose usual panting, tail-wagging enthusiasm for a car ride (oh boy!) has gone tragically wrong:
"Fixed? Fixed! What you talkin' 'bout fixed?"
"The (stuff) ain't fixed. The (stuff) is broke! The (stuff) is broke real bad (misguided human)!
"Uh, huh. I'm 'bout to fix your scraggly (anatomy). Yeah. Just go ahead and go to sleep."
And here, singing: "Nighty-night (misguided human)!"
So you see the trouble English speakers can get into sometimes.
I taught English to Spanish speakers in Mexico for a while. Sometimes I felt I needed to defend English. Sometimes English was indefensible.
"Many people—native-speakers and learners alike—decry English as being illogical, and they point to pairs such as flammable and inflammable as examples. But there are other words that are just as frustrating: contranyms," writes Merriam-Webster dictionary.
"A contranym, also known as a 'Janus word,' is a word that is its own opposite—like 'fast', which can describe both quick movement, and lack of movement."
Here is a list of 75 contranyms provided by Mark Nichol of dailywritingtips.com. I don't know that all of these fit the category. See what you think:
1 Apology: A statement of contrition for an action, or a defense of one
2. Aught: All, or nothing
3. Bill: A payment, or an invoice for payment
4. Bolt: To secure, or to flee
5. Bound: Heading to a destination, or restrained from movement
6. Buckle: To connect, or to break or collapse
7. Cleave: To adhere, or to separate
8. Clip: To fasten, or detach
9. Consult: To offer advice, or to obtain it
10. Continue: To keep doing an action, or to suspend an action
11. Custom: A common practice, or a special treatment
12. Dike: A wall to prevent flooding, or a ditch
13. Discursive: Moving in an orderly fashion among topics, or proceeding aimlessly in a discussion
14. Dollop: A large amount (British English), or a small amount
15. Dust: To add fine particles, or to remove them
16. Enjoin: To impose, or to prohibit
17. Fast: Quick, or stuck or made stable
18. Fine: Excellent, or acceptable or good enough
19. Finished: Completed, or ended or destroyed
20. First degree: Most severe in the case of a murder charge, or least severe in reference to a burn
21. Fix: To repair, or to castrate
22. Flog: To promote persistently, or to criticize or beat
23. Garnish: To furnish, as with food preparation, or to take away, as with wages
24. Give out: To provide, or to stop because of a lack of supply
25. Go: To proceed or succeed, or to weaken or fail
26. Grade: A degree of slope, or a horizontal line or position
27. Handicap: An advantage provided to ensure equality, or a disadvantage that prevents equal achievement
28. Help: To assist, or to prevent or (in negative constructions) restrain
29. Hold up: To support, or to impede
30. Lease: To offer property for rent, or to hold such property
31. Left: Remained, or departed
32. Let: Allowed, or hindered
33. Liege: A feudal lord, or a vassal
34. Literally: Actually, or virtually
35. Mean: Average or stingy, or excellent
36. Model: An exemplar, or a copy
37. Off: Deactivated, or activated, as an alarm
38. Out: Visible, as with stars showing in the sky, or invisible, in reference to lights
39. Out of: Outside, or inside, as in working out of a specific office
40. Overlook: To supervise, or to neglect
41. Oversight: Monitoring, or failing to oversee
42. Peer: A person of the nobility, or an equal
43. Presently: Now, or soon
44. Put out: Extinguish, or generate
45. Puzzle: A problem, or to solve one
46. Quantum: Significantly large, or a minuscule part
47. Quiddity: Essence, or a trifling point of contention
48. Quite: Rather (as a qualifying modifier), or completely
49. Ravel: To entangle, or to disentangle
50. Refrain: To desist from doing something, or to repeat
51. Rent: To purchase use of something, or to sell use
52. Rock: An immobile mass of stone or figuratively similar phenomenon, or a shaking or unsettling movement or action
53. Sanction: To approve, or to boycott
54. Sanguine: Confidently cheerful, or bloodthirsty
55. Scan: To peruse, or to glance
56. Screen: To present, or to conceal
57. Seed: To sow seeds, or to shed or remove them
58. Shop: To patronize a business in order to purchase something, or to sell something
59. Skin: To cover, or to remove
60. Skinned: Covered with skin, or with the skin removed
61. Splice: To join, or to separate
62. Stakeholder: One who has a stake in an enterprise, or a bystander who holds the stake for those placing a bet
63. Strike: To hit, or to miss in an attempt to hit
64. Table: To propose (in British English), or to set aside
65. Temper: To soften, or to strengthen
66. Throw out: To dispose of, or to present for consideration
67. Transparent: Invisible, or obvious
68. Trim: To decorate, or to remove excess from
69. Trip: A journey, or a stumble
70. Unbending: Rigid, or relaxing
71. Variety: A particular type, or many types
72. Wear: To endure, or to deteriorate
73. Weather: To withstand, or to wear away
74. Wind up: To end, or to start up
75. With: Alongside, or against
"Those disgruntled at the phenomenon (of contranyms) may be glad to know that the class of words is rather small, and also that there is usually some sort of logic at work," Merriam-Webster writes.
"Many contranyms developed their contradictory meanings through semantic broadening, a process by which a word with a narrow, specific meaning gains a broader and more general meaning later on in its life. Peruse ("to examine or consider with attention and in detail" or "to look over or through in a casual or cursory manner") is a good example of this."
The inverse also happens: a word that begins life with a broad meaning gains a number of more specific meanings that develop in parallel to each other, but in a way that eventually results in contradictory meanings. Sanction is one such word.
When it entered English, sanction referred to an oath. Over time, it came to refer to something that would compel someone or something to moral behavior, as an oath might; later, it gained the two contradictory senses that refer to approval and economic disapproval—both of which might compel a person or a country to behave better.
The same thing happened with oversight. That word originally referred to watchful care or supervision, but through an extension of meaning, people also began to use it to refer to the thing that watchful care or supervision gets rid of: errors of omission."
"As with sanction, both meanings are still in use today, leading to plenty of jokes about what exactly "Congressional oversight" refers to," Merriam-Webster wrote.
"Sometimes, a contranym develops because we conflate two homographs which are not actually related. This is the case with cleave, which is actually two separate verbs: one which means "to split" (from the Old English verb cleōfan, which means "to split"), and one which means "to adhere firmly or loyally" (from the Old English verb clifian, "to adhere"). "
"The same goes for clip, whose contradictory meanings are actually from two discrete verbs that mean "to attach something" and "to cut off."
And here we cut off (sorry Fido!) the discussion, with apologies to all those learning English as a second language and to all unfortunate puppies.
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