words with contradictory meanings

dust

nice one!

then again, if you’d change the lyrics of the Kansas hit to “all we do is dust in the wind”, it wouldn’t change the meaning of the song at all

gallant

previously meant “sexually forward” i.e. a man motivated by trying to get into ladies’ knickers and was basically negative

then became a bit of a catch-all for “courageous”, not just in carnal matters

then the honorable side of courage rubbed off on it, but the previous association with behaviour towards women remained, so magically “gallant” now means “chivalrous” - previously its exact antonym!

Same etymon as 'well' (e.g. 'well-being') and the Gallo-Roman 'walare', which meant 'to chill' (figuratively, that is). The ancestors had their priorities straight.

Along the same lines: 'to host' could also mean 'to lodge at an inn' back in the day. Its ambiguity subsists in the French 'hôte', which denotes both guest and host depending on the context. Nor is a host in the military sense a welcome guest in most cases, but it's not an exact antonym either.

Speaking of French, it also features a number of spectacular diachronic reversals: 'rem' (Latin accusative of 'res', i.e. 'thing') eventually became 'rien' (nothing).

From most to least obsolete, the nouns 'mie' (the soft part of bread), 'goutte' (drop (of liquid)), 'point' (self-explanatory) and 'pas' (step) double as adverbs that mean 'not' (e.g. 'je (ne) peux pas'). Presumably 'ne' or 'n'' on their own (as in 'on n'y voit goutte') are too puny to bear the mighty weight of negation.

fain

Definition of fain (Entry 1 of 2)
1a : WILLING
he was very fain, for the young widow was "altogether fair and lovely … "
— Amy Kelly
b : being obliged or constrained : COMPELLED
Great Britain was fain to devote its whole energy … to the business of slaying and being slain
— G. M. Trevelyan

"performative" seems to have developed a couple of almost opposite meanings, not sure which definition came first

also: communism (no state vs supreme state)

nonplussed

(contradictory usage if not actual meaning but it ain't going away.)

Karen

I was reminded of this thread by an advert for a furniture store which uses Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell's "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" as its soundtrack. Are they able to give those massive discounts they're always telling us about because their stuff is just cheap tat?

"fellow children" because sometimes it means you are a child and sometimes is means you are in fact masquerading as a child

spare:

being in excess of present need; free for other use: spare time.

frugally restricted or meager, as a manner of living or a diet: a spare regime.

Yeah that's good!

Beheaded

am i understanding these definitions correctly? 1 and 2 are opposite, no? even the “or” in 1b seems to point the two options in opposite directions

noesis

1 : purely intellectual apprehension:
a Platonism : the highest kind of knowledge or knowledge of the eternal forms or ideas —contrasted with dianoia

b in Husserl : the subjective aspect of or the act in an intentional experience —distinguished from noema

2 : cognition especially when occurring through direct knowledge

Handicap, as it applies in golf. Perhaps not contradictory but counter-intuitive

"Dust" is my favourite in this thread. Imagine that when it was time to do the sweeping you'd say "can you dirt the floor today please"

classic Amelia Bedelia scene depending on that one iirc

Hahahah

“the goat”

Ha, yes! Took me ages to figure out this new meaning, scratched my head many times on the way

contemporary!

― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, November 28, 2018 7:51 AM (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Off: turn off, set off (e.g. a fire alarm)

“turn” and “set” are different words

they're not the word in question.

well then you could say anything is contradictory! the word “turn” - turn up vs turn down etc

typcially to put something in an 'off' state - turn off, switch off - is to disable it or stop it. in some cases - set off, kick off - it can mean to enable or start. ok strictly speaking it's the phrase as a whole which has the meaning, nevertheless i find it curious and amusing that 'off' can be used in this way.

i think "off" in that second group is working more as "free" or "release" or "unleash". i agree that it's doing something different to turning off a switch

let's set off the fire extinguisher! no, turn it off, turn it off!

Fuck off

Not really just seemed like the thing to say

to ask someone to fuck off is not necessarily the same as wishing them to be fucked off

fuck away

no, it's not quite the same

fuck off the pain

The phrase “if not” in constructions like “it was a piece of showmanship worthy of Gaz Coombes, if not Hitler” is used to mean two basically contradictory things (“although not Hitler” vs “and even Hitler”)

Is that a reference to the Suella Braverman resignation letter?

i don't think this is a contradiction exactly, it's more like the establishment of a continuum without locating a specific place on the continuum

viz it's contradctory to say "i was in london and also i was in glasgow" but it's not contradictory to say "i was on the london-glasgow train" -- “it was a piece of showmanship worthy of Gaz Coombes, if not Hitler” is a way of saying "i was on the coombes-hitler train": you're indicating an evolution and a direction but not a distance

in a sense are we not all on the coombes-hitler train ?

I'll be in the Quiet coach.

i agree with the wins offering of if not as used

OK how about this:

the alarm's going off
vs
the television's going off (till you've done your homework)

the yoghurts going off

Hmm. I guess that to go off might mean lots of activity (go off on a tangent) or no activity (go off line) or unexpected activity (go off script) or unpleasant activity (go off on someone).

But these are set phrases, not sure that's the same thing as a word that might function as its own antonym.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=go+off+queen

Or go off your meds, which means to not take them, or go off message, which means to lose discipline. Go off queen is more like "lose control but in a good way."

as far as I'm concerned phrases are words and I think at least some linguists would back me up on this