What is Digg?83 Comments
- shankrabbit, on 10/12/2007, -5/+29A few of those are wrong.
Example: help - assist, prevent (e.g., "I can't help it if...")
Putting "can't" in front of "help" is what brings the word "help" to negative. - fober, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18I enjoyed aught of that.
- Xanin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14Bloody hell, will you people stop bringing politics into every single thread?
- stephenv, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15 Shakespeare had some awesome talent writing witty dialogue using this as well as double entendre (e.g. "look for me tomorrow and you will find me a grave man").
- zldomi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12I never realized how silly it is to say "My alarm didn't go off!" when explaining my tardiness.
Imagine how confusing it must be to people learning our language. - dylanmat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10I am a mender of bad soles.
- Takfam, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Well if you're going to go that route, then why not bring up "Religious Right"?
It is an oxymoron, but perhaps a contronym as well. The opposite of "Religious Right" would be "Nonreligious Wrong" and the "Religious Right" have proven time and time again that they are hypocrites in their actions compared to their words (nonreligious) and frequently support Bush regardless of the correctness of his actions (wrong). Therefore the fact that the "Religious Right" has come to mean "Nonreligious Wrong" and thus, its own antonym.
...If this is wrong, I'll have another beer and try again. - oesj, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7those are not antonyms. the opposite of always is never not usually
- wendelgee2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6"by" is dead wrong. It's just a preposition.
It only means "divide" if you say "divided by."
If "by" took on all the meanings of the words that preceded it, it could mean absolutely anything - onikage, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6By is a preposition. Multiplication and division are the inverses here, while by is a useful bystander (sorry!).
Consult does not mean to give advice, it means to request it. Advise means giving advice.
Chuffed means annoyed? Since when? I demand a non-Wiki source!
Clip has an antoynm, unclip.
...
Now I'm bored and slightly unchuffed. - daedalus1982, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6buckle
-to put together
-to fall apart - oesj, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7is that an example of 'fun' being used as its own antonym?!
- thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Apparently, you don't work with engineers.
- keithc01, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I agree that "help" is wrong.
I can't help but worry about the test = I can't [assist myself] in worrying about the test. - JesperL, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5"mean - average, excellent (e.g., "plays a mean game")"
I've never had the displeasure of hearing someone use mean in such a way as that it would be the antonym to excellent. Most often when mean is used in the non-colloquial sense, it refers to the mathematical concept of averaging and so forth. - daedalus1982, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4He that has a house to put's head in has a good
head-piece.
The cod-piece that will house
Before the head has any,
The head and he shall louse;
references to both "heads" and that a man that would please one "head" before the other is gonna end up dirty, homeless, and std-ridden
wisdom for our times. lol - ldkronos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@keithc01
That isn't showing that "help" was wrong...just that "help" has an alternate interpretation. Which was pretty much what the whole article was about...words with alternate, opposite interpretations
The fact that "prevent myself from" and "assist myself in" can both be replaced with the word "help" without changing the meaning should make this clear. - duster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4How about "bound"?
i.e. bound for a destination, or, bound to a location - Lennalf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4The kinda work... kinda.
boned (not yet de-boned, the fish has been boned)
inflammable (combustible, not combustible)
However, I must add that inflammable *really* only means combustible, it's just that many people mistake inflammable to be the opposite of flammable because of the Latin prefix "in". - treed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I dunno, I still think "cleave" has only one meaning, which is "to separate but leave together", as in a "cloven hoof". It's divided at the bottom, but still connected at the top. Cleavage is comprised of separate units that are attached to the same chest, etc.
- arbulus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3But what about a meat cleaver? It cleaves meat from bone, separating them completely.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"contronym" mixes a latin preposition with a greek root.
no digg for bad linguistics. - metalgod79, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3UUDDLRLRBA-Start
- rhinopig, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"they couldn't help the accident"
"we couldn't help laughing"
Those are 2 where help can only be replaced by prevent and don't make sense if replaced by assist. I suppose you could argue the second use is shorthand for 'help ourselves from' or even both are short for 'help prevent' but regardless those are 2 valid English sentences where the only synonym would be something along the lines of prevent or restrain. - MindStalker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Consult does not mean to give advice, it means to request it. Advise means giving advice.
Ask a consultant if he consults.. Yes to consult can mean to give it.
Clip has an antoynm, unclip.
Clip can mean to attach with a clip, but it can also mean to cut off. - ElGuano, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3If this list was created in the 80s, the word "bad" (as in MJ) would be on it.
- Nougat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4im in ur language redefining ur wordz
- seether166, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2While I think you're technically correct, I'm not too impressed with colloquialisms qualifying a word a contronym. That isn't the exclusively assail your example, I think a lot of the examples from the article were weak or just wrong. I think some of the better examples are the nearly incontrovertible instances like "weather" and "transparent" Interesting concept, nonetheless.
- mram48, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I once had a college English 101 prof who said that ANY word or sound has a proper spelling, but when I asked how to spell the fart noise she had no answer to that. How about you? How is it spelled?
- kmb1794, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I think my favorite is "moot"
1. Debateable: open to question
2. Deprived of practical significance - ldkronos, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3@shankrabbit: Putting "can't" in front of "help" is what brings the word "help" to negative.
So what you are saying is that changing the context of a word changes the meaning of the word. However, that doesn't invalidate the point of the article. The article wasn't about words that have an ambiguous meaning. It was that the same word, used in 2 different contexts, has opposite meanings. - jerryyeti, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3To this day I'm unsure if "pitted" olives means with pits or without pits.
- CountryJustice, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2There are several of these that are dodgy:
"Grade - incline, level" Level, in this case, meaning as in school, and not to be confused with the antonym of incline.
"dollop - a large amount, a small amount" This is merely subjective interpretation.
"consult - ask for advice, give advice" This one was covered, but it bears repeating.
"handicap - advantage, disadvantage" A handicap in sports (as it is referred to here as an "advantage") such as golf or bowling is advance points given to the lesser of two players to allow for fair play. Though a handicap is an advantage on the surface, the player with the handicap still has the disadvantage of being the worse of the two.
"off - off, on (e.g., "the alarm went off")" There is no comparison between an adjective/preposition ("off") and an intransitive verb ("go off").
"out - visible (e.g., stars), invisible (e.g., lights)" Just incorrect. If a light is out in the daytime, can I still not see it?
"quite - rather, completely" "Rather" and "completely" are hardly antonyms.
Anyways, there's others but I'm bored now.
"" - edstate, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Acutally, it's both: moot = "it's not worth discussing because the subject is open for debate"
- catullus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2im on ur threadz, replyin ur commentz
- TokenUser, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Dugg ... because of the confusion I caused in a meeting yesterday by requesting we table an important topic (I used the English meaning in a room full of Americans). Ah, the complexities of cultural differences. Two countries seperated by a common language.
- ImOscar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Judging from your examples you could say the word understand is unnecessary and complicaties things.
You changed "Don't you get it?" to "Don't you understand?"
Similarly, "I've got to get that" becoming "I must have that."
No word is ever needed, "to get" and its forms can't simply be removed from any sentence.
It does make learning English a pain in the ass, due to its many forms and frequent use. - toxicredm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Get a life.
- SMITHN4, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2To cleave is to separate something along a natural line, as you so eloquently put it that nice line that runs down the center of your chest (metaphysically speaking)
- Takfam, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If that's true, then how is it that Americans spell a dog's bark as "Arf" or "Bow-wow!" and the Japanese spell it "Gau! Gau!"?
Amusingly, asking her to spell the fart sound proved that she was talking out her ass. - tech42er, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1We know what "table" means. It means "to put off", right? I will admit that we don't usually use it in normal speech, though.
- arbulus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I guess one might think of it if one were the type that doesn't care for debate. As in:
"We could talk about this all night (open to question), but it isn't going to make any difference (of no practical significance)"
Then I suppose it would be moot. - wiihuck, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1queef.
or is that not the fart noise you're talking about.... - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1matter:
as noun, solid material
as verb, to have significance beyond the physical
and, not quite in the definition, but sensor/censor - stryck, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1For the people confused about why 'consult' means 'to give advice,' here's an explanatory phrase: "I consult for xyz firm."
Also, I believe shaving something flat is grading it. May be wrong about that one, though. - tech42er, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah. I hate that.
- BufordT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1fix - restore, castrate
Classic - syder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean, "bad"?
- arbulus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Huh?
- bioskope, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1cleavage was something that always bothered me.
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