Vagaries of English

[Papaleekie]

I love the English language. It has so many vagaries in
grammar and vocabulary. I posted on another thread how an identically sounding word can mean the opposite of itself; eg Raise/Raze. Can you think of any others?

How about left and left: Two men in a room, one left, one left. Which means one stayed. I had some fun with this one with some foreign ESOL students last week.

[novalis]

How about cleave which can have totally opposite meanings?

[winebuyer]

Rose.

Rose = a type of plant.

Rose = he got up.

Rose = nozzle of watering can.

Rows = he skulls a boat.

Rows = several lines, say of seats.

Roes = several female deer.

And so on ...

[winebuyer]

Or this. In a test which included a question on the use of the word "had", two friends called Had and Hadd each gave a different answer. With that in mind, how do you punctuate the following so that it makes sense?

Had had had had Hadd had had had had had had had been correct

?

[beso]

Not quite the same sound but feast and fast are quite the opposite in meaning.

[Papaleekie]

Thanks both of you, but Winebuyer I was looking for same sounding words with opposite meanings.

There's a really obvious one that I can't think of at the mo!

[winebuyer]

Oops, just read the post properly.

It's about words which can mean the opposite of themselves.

Sorry. I'll butt out (butts out ...)

[Papaleekie]

Thanks Beso. Fast and (stuck) fast are opposites. You can't be fast if you are stuck fast!

[bimbo123456]

You can get them in french too:
Je suis ce que je suis, mais je ne suis pas ce que je suis. Parceque ce que je suis est un ane. Apologies if the spelling is wrong it is about 30 years since I did French at school. For some reason this stayed with me. It means I am what I am, but I am not what I follow. Because that which I follow is a donkey.

[Postdog]

Well not what you are looking for, but the one (two really) that has always puzzled me is flammable, and inflammable - both basically are understood to mean the same thing.

Or, another variation on your example - the one on the right was wrong, but the one on the left was right.

[novalis]

There is a German one which could cause confusion for the unwary.
The main meaning of Rock is skirt, but it used to be used for a man's jacket as well and it still has that sense in South Germany and Austria.

[bimbo123456]

Game: something you play
something you eat
up for anything!

[Papaleekie]

I picked up a lamp that was quite heavy.

So I suppose it was a light that wasn't light.

[kempie]

Bolt - secure, run away

[Mortartube]

Rain, Rein and Reign.

Bore, Boer

Fair, Fare

Pair, Pare

Tire, Tyre

Liar, Lyre

Bite, Byte

Blue, Blew

I realise that these words aren't necessarily opposites but I imagine many foreign students studying english, have a few less than complimentary words of their own to use.

[THECORBYLOON]

There's a fair few here, http://www.fun-with-words.com/nym_autoantonyms .html

[Papaleekie]

Cheers CorbyLoon (do you live in Corby?) that's a great link.

Quantum's a good example, meaning both very small and very large. Almost as confusing as Quantum Physics.

[kempie]

The problem with the list in TCL's link is that some of the words do not actually mean what some users of them think they mean i.e. they are being misused. Does that still fit your criteria or are you looking for words with "official" definitions that are 'autoantonyms' or 'contranyms'?

Examples of those that would fail the test:

Splice - never means cut (confused with slice?)
Literally - never means virtually, figuratively

As for quantum...

[dundurn]

Sometimes it's because the usage is (or seems to be) the result of a mistake. NASA uses 'nominal' to mean 'correct, the expected value'; so, 'the shuttle is moving at a nominal 17500mph'. Correct usage would require that a value or amount described as nominal would be very small.

On other occasions English and American have opposite meanings. In English to table a motion means to propose it. In American to table a motion means not to propose it, i.e. leave it on the table and walk away.