Now Entering Crow Country: I wonder if this is true

Monday, March 16, 2009

I wonder if this is true

The verb “cleave” is the only English word with two synonyms that are antonyms of each other: adhere and separate.

Found on the Gifted Typist

4 comments:

otgirl said...: Well it is true that cleave has antonymous meanings (I just made up that word). But whether or not it's the only word that does... that's another question.; March 16, 2009 at 8:12 PM
Serena said...: Again the Internet comes to the rescue! They even have a name!

"An auto-antonym (or, more properly, autantonym), or contronym (sometimes misspelled contranym) is a word with a homograph that is also an antonym. Variant names include antagonym, Janus word, and self-antonym. It is a word with multiple meanings, one of which is defined as the reverse of one of its other meanings."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_self-contradicting_words_in_English

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-antonym; March 17, 2009 at 6:26 PM
stutefish said...: Yes, but are there any others besides "cleave"?; March 19, 2009 at 2:23 PM
Serena said...: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_self-contradicting_words_in_English

Just a few:

Adumbrate
(1) to disclose (2) to obscure

Anabasis
(1) a military advance (2) a difficult and dangerous military retreat

Apology
(1) an admission of error accompanied by a plea for forgiveness (2) a formal defense or justification (as in Plato's Apology), also referred to as an apologia

Against
(1) in the direction of and into contact with ("against the wall") (2) in a direction opposite to ("against the wind"); March 19, 2009 at 3:34 PM

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