Single Words That Can Have Opposed Meanings

[rowyn]

A random site I wound up at yesterday (while trying to research the origins of some phrases) said that "cleave" is the only word in the English language that is synonymous with two words that are antonym of each other: "adhere" and "separate". The "adhere" meaning doesn't get as much use any more -- the main instance of it that came to my mind is the archaic wedding-vow usage: "Cleave unto one another". But it's there.

I was wondering if there really aren't any other words that mean both one thing and the opposite of that thing, though. "Literally" comes to mind, because there's a colloquial use where "literally" is used emphasis and actually means "figuratively": "I made one little comment and she literally bit my head off!" Although dictionaries don't seem to be acknowledging this use of 'literally' yet. Which is okay with me; I don't want to encourage it anyway. >:)

Inflammable comes to mind too, except that inflammable really doesn't mean "cannot be burned" even though it sounds like it should.

Anyway, can anyone else think of any instances?

Comments

[jimmy-hollaman.livejournal.com]

when i was doing the 1000 words project i used a web site that had a list of these types of words....
http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/welcome.htm

[jimmy-hollaman.livejournal.com]

Its under deversions then click the scorpian on contradictions....

[rowyn]

Oh, cool! There are lots of them. :D

[jimmy-hollaman.livejournal.com]

it is a cool site, i would recomend going through the other sets of words

[level-head.livejournal.com]

It occurs to me that colloquial usage engenders a lot of these. Think of "fat chance" and adjectives like "bad" and "sick" to mean high praise.

===|==============/ Level Head

[rowyn]

Wicked! :D

It's funny the way words mutate, like "terrible" going from "inspires terror" to "bad".

[ceruleanst.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-antonym
There are many. A lot are transitive verbs that can mean to add a thing or remove it, such as "dust" or "trim".
A special transatlantic one in governmental procedure is "to table a motion" which in the UK means to propose it and in the US means to dismiss it.

[level-head.livejournal.com]

I like your Him-flavored icon. Nicely done. And it is especially appropriate since your early comic included a lot of employee turnover.

===|==============/ Level Head

[rowyn]

I love that English not only has words like ths, but a word to describe them. Hee! So screwy.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Amelia Bedelia loved dusting things by sprinkling dust on them.

"Aloha" means both "hello" and "goodbye".

I need to root out the dandelions before they get rooted in my garden.

The baseballist failed to strike the ball with the bat, causing the umpire to declare it a strike.

One kind of clip can hold things together, another can cleave them apart.

Sometimes oversight is necessary to prevent oversights from occurring.

There are a few words with opposing meanings in British and American English. Tabling a proposal in America is postponing it; in Britain it's putting it on the table for discussion. "Getting his willy in your fanny" means obliquely different and in some sense opposite things.

[rowyn]

Hee!