There are almost more synonyms for the word "contronym" than there are contronyms them selves. Contronyms are also called auto-antonyms, enantiodromes, antag onyms (that one's my favourite) and self-antonyms. These words all refer to a rather strange phenomenon where a word may have two completely opposite meanings.
The most famous example of this phenomenon is the word `cleave'.
`Cleave' can be used to mean `separate' (verb), as in the word `cleavage'. It can also be used to mean `join'; two objects or people can `cleave' together.
A tree might weather a storm by staying alive and unaffected, but the sea might weather (to wear away) the sharp points of rocks on the coast.
Sanction signifies approval, while sanctions are limits you place upon something. `Fast' usually means to move quickly, yet an older meaning of the word signifies staying in one posi tion hence the word `steadfast'.
Similarly, `bolt' is something you do very quickly (you might bolt your food, for example), but you also use bolts to keep things in place. `Left' can either mean that something is not here any more (Elvis has left the building) or that something remains present (War isn't about who's right; it's about who's left).
`Bound' can either mean `tied to one place', or it can mean travel -`when he woke up, he was in a spaceship bound for the moon'. A disproportionate number of contronyms seem to focus on the actions of moving or staying still.
You can overlook a project by supervising it, yet you can also overlook a mistake by failing to pay attention to it. Awful in the past meant `awe-inspiring' in a positive way; nowadays it is used as a condemnation. When you dust yourself with talcum powder (or on a better day, body glitter) you are putting it onto yourself, but when you dust the furniture you are removing it. To screen a movie is to display it to the public, while in other circumstances to screen something is to hide it.
Contronyms are not limited to the English language. In many languages, the words you say when you begin and end a conversation are the same, leading to a major difficulty for any translator who might want to translate the Beatles song Hello, Goodbye.
And Hindi presents a strange time-travel paradox where the word kal can be used to mean both yesterday and tomorrow, making sure that no one will ever turn up on time for anything.
Contronyms (or antagonyms) are a wonderful example of how much language depends on things like context and usage. They also, if you study their origins, give you a fascinating view of the development of language.
And they make dictionaries look rather silly
-bluelullaby@gmail.com
