Do you know what a contronym is? (Part 1 of 3)

cj Sez: Here’s a fascinating article on contronyms, explaining word usages byJudith Herman. Did I ever mention that English is hard? The article started out as 25 words and in January2023 became: “40 Words and Phrases That Are Their Own Opposites.” The articleis a bit too long for a single Lyrical Pens post, so today’s post will include thirteenof the words. Watch for the rest of the words in January 2024. Can you believethat? 2024!  

  Stumble into the looking-glass world of contronyms — JudithHerman 
  Here’s an ambiguous sentence for you: “Because of theagency’s oversight, the corporation’s behavior was sanctioned.” Does that mean,“Because the agency oversaw the company’s behavior, they imposed a penalty forsome transgression,” or does it mean, “Because the agency was inattentive, theyoverlooked the misbehavior and gave it their approval by default”? We’vestumbled into the looking-glass world of contronyms—words that are their ownantonyms. 
  The contronym (also spelled “contranym”) goes by many names,including auto-antonym, antagonym, enantiodrome, self-antonym, antilogy, andJanus word (from the Roman god of beginnings and endings, often depicted withtwo faces looking in opposite directions). 
Here are a few of them.

1. Sanction—which came to English via French, from Latin sanctio(n-) and sancire, “toratify,”—can mean “give official permission or approval for (an action)” orconversely, “impose a penalty on.”

2. Oversight is the noun form of two verbs with contrary meanings: “oversee” and “overlook.” Oversee, from OldEnglish ofersēon (“look at from above”) means “supervise”(medieval Latin for the same thing: super-, “over” plus videre, “tosee”). Overlook usually means the opposite: “to fail to see orobserve; to pass over without noticing; to disregard, ignore,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

3. Left can mean either remaining or departed. If thegentlemen have withdrawn to the drawing room for after-dinner cigars, who’sleft? (The gentlemen have left and the ladies are left.)

4. Dust, along with the next two words, is a nounturned into a verb meaning either to add or to remove the thing inquestion. Only the context will tell you which it is. When you dust are youapplying dust or removing it? It depends whether you’re dusting the crops orthe furniture.

5. Seed can also go either way. If you seed the lawn youadd seeds, but if you seed a tomato you remove them.

6. Stone is another verb to use with caution. You canstone some peaches, but please don’t stone your neighbor (even if he says helikes to get stoned).

7. Trim as a verb predates the noun, but it can also meaneither adding or taking away. Arising from an Old English word meaning “to makefirm or strong; to settle, arrange,” accordingto the OED, trim came to mean “to prepare, make ready.” Dependingon whom or what was being readied, it could mean either of two contradictory things: “todecorate [something] with ribbons, laces, or the like ... to give it a finishedappearance” or “to cut off the [outgrowths] or irregularities of.” And thecontext doesn’t always make it clear. If you’re trimming the tree are you usingtinsel or a chain saw?

8. Cleave can be cleaved into twohomographs, words with different origins that end up spelled thesame. Cleave, meaning “to cling to or adhere,” comes from an Old Englishword that took the forms cleofian, clifian, or clīfan. Cleave,with the contrary meaning “to split or sever (something)”—as you mightdo with a cleaver—comes from a different Old English word, clēofan. Thepast participle has taken various forms: cloven, which survives in thephrase “cloven hoof,” “cleft,” as in a “cleft palate” or “cleaved.”

9. Fast can mean “movingrapidly,” as in running fast, or “fixed, unmoving,” as in holdingfast. If colors are fast they will not run. The meaning “firm, steadfast” came first; the adverb took on the sense “strongly,vigorously,” which evolved into “quickly,” a meaning that spread to theadjective.

10. Off means “deactivated,” as in to turn off,but also “activated,” as in the alarm went off.

11. Weather can mean “to withstand or come safelythrough” (as in the company weathered the recession) or it can mean “to beworn away” (the rock was weathered).

12. You'd screen a movie on this screen. Screen can mean “to show” (a movie) or “to hide” (anunsightly view).

13. Help means “assist,” unless you can’t help doingsomething, when it means “prevent. 
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   Google search info: The first night of Hanukkah 2023 started at nightfall on Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023, and the first candle is lit.The final candles are lit on Thursday evening, Dec. 14, and the holidayconcludes the following day, Dec. 15. §§

  Okay, that’s it for today. You-all guys keep on keeping on,and I’ll try to do the same. Raising prayers for a happy and safe you and yours.
cj

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