One Word In Russian

[Bert45]

I have just learned that the Russian word 'mir' can mean 'world' or 'peace'. How can a Russian know what is meant when he sees the word (in Cyrillic characters)? How can one word have two such different meanings?

[Peter Pedant]

//If something is fast, does it mean it's not moving as in "stuck fast" or is it moving at speed?//

Different roots – think of dyke – ditch or wall or a girl on a bike
These are called auto antonyms and have one meaning opposite to the other. Clearly one meaning tends to drop out of use. My mandarin guide ( Beijing) asked our driver as I used that very example – fast and fast (one an irregular past participle from “fasten” by the way) – ‘did you understand what he just said?’ in Mandarin. This is kinda odd for a guide to ask an illiterate driver. I realised or confimed at that very moment since my surname is really ‘M’ – that they thought my father was head of MI5. And they were both really spooks. I had to disabuse them. They had to waste a week with me

[brainiac]

J. G. Hava's Arabic-English Dictionary, published in Beirut in 1964 gives many many examples of the impossibility of the Arabic language

khal: Huge mountain. Big camel. Banner of a prince. Shroud. Fancy. Black stallion. Self-magnified. Caliphate. Lonely place. Opinion. Suspicion. Bachelor. Good manager. Horse's bit. Liberal man. Weak-bodied, weak-hearted man. Free from suspicion.

jawn: Black. White. Light red. Day. Intensely black (horse).

Good luck with that lot....

[ichkeria]

It’s nothing different to English which actually has far more words like that.
One of the oddities is when you get two completely different words that just happen to look the same eg уже which can mean “narrower” or “already” depending on where you put the stress. But again, nothing really English can’t match.
French has fut (was) and fut (barrel) only the latter gets an accent on it to avoid confusion :-)
Another Russian word for “world” свет can also mean “light” as in “daylight”

[vulcan42]

The word minute can also create problems when spoken. When my two sons were small the eldest, about seven, said he had something in his hand and trying to impress said it's minute. the youngest about five said" Ooh, let me see your newt"