words with contradictory meanings

time wounds all heels as the great man once said

words mean exactly what I intend them to mean

that's just mean

it's the mean but it's not necessarily just

resisting the urge to soapbox on "performative" again because social media has made it way too hard to use the word in a meaningful way without having to redefine it first

like I *wish* gender was just shallow surface posturing in the same vein as a brand's newfound wokeness. maybe it is that kind of thing just done really hard for thousands of years

I didn't resist that hard

drawing the curtains = opening or closing them. Dickens uses "undraw" for open, but I'm guessing that's obsolete everywhere, right?

“fast” is a great one

the lex otm, tuomas offtm

milk carton otms

apparently

Probably been done upthread but (US) could care less = (UK) couldn't care less

"Could care less" is in colloquial use, but it's still "wrong."

i could have sworn i already posted this. maybe i did it in the wrong thread fml. French has a couple of these, sorta

“pas terrible” - literally “not terrible” but actually means irredeemably bad

“fais gaffe” - literally “make a mistake” but actually means watch out, be careful, mind your step

i think the meaning of "pas terrible" is closer to "Well, it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't exactly great either"

as for "fais gaffe", perhaps it has something to do with the literal definition of "gaffe", since you are generally in an attentive state of mind when docking a boat with a boathook?

well the way my family uses it, it means “VERY terrible” - it’s tremendously counterintuitive which is why i included it here

ah this page explains it. “terrible” in the archaic sense of “terrific”. so “not great”

https://www.thoughtco.com/ce-nest-pas-terrible-1371144

so it serves for english too! i had to double check the full thread and i’m actually mildly surprised no one’s suggested it yet. “terrible” = 1) quite bad 2) terrific

I've definitely heard 'terrible' used to mean 'fantastic' in French. An uncle of mine (who is admittedly in his 80s) uses it that way.

yeah i feel like i've heard "terriblement" too like eg darling, would you mind terribly if i stayed the night with joan? i'd be ever so grateful for it

Captain Terrible and the Brown Dirt Cowboy

good one, Tracer

not quite opposites but:
https://i.redd.it/e8cjmmi3cwl21.jpg

applause

Garbage man vs. garbage person

xp amazing!

the "terribly" thing has echoes in English I think, eg "She's terribly educated" vs "She was terribly educated"..?

yes i think thats right

teddibly

“peak”

i need you to explain that one

Peak means bad in British slang (I had to look that up)

no wonder coppers knew the Peaky Blinders were bad guys

I was wondering the other day if there was any opposite slang (is there a grammatical term for this? bad = good etc) where a positive means a negative instead of the other way round.

"Peak", to become weak, thin, and sickly, first recorded 1500, origin uncertain. Usually used as an adjective these days, "you're looking a bit peaky". Wonder if thats where the slang came from or not.

the grammatical term is pejoration

at least in the direction of positive > negative

i just learned a good example yesterday: "clambake" used to mean a hip shindig, and Tommy Dorsey even had a jazz combo called the "Clambake Seven" -- but by the '50s "clambake" came to mean a difficult or unproductive jam session, and the word "clam" persists today among musicians as a term for a wrong note or blunder

Peak means bad in British slang (I had to look that up)

Never heard of it.

In any case, slang words that mean the opposite of their standard meaning, no shortage of those.

well with the slang word peak I think it actually evolved from meaning "intensely amazing" - like a peak experience - and then pivoted to meaning "intensely bad" - like in both cases it means "super intense" but just slipped from good to bad

In any case, slang words that mean the opposite of their standard meaning, no shortage of those.

― Not waving but droning (Tom D.), Tuesday, April 23, 2024 10:24 AM (twelve minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

obviously. but it would be more fun if you listed your favorite examples

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw1ZhGBDICI

It seems very rare now but "stupid" used to mean amazing in the '90s, I guess it evolved from "stupid fresh"

> Tommy Dorsey even had a jazz combo called the "Clambake Seven"

i think you're missing a more obvious clambake, the elvis waterskiing film

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clambake_(film)

(oh, i put it in url tags to avoid the famous ends-in-a-) bug and it did the exact same thing anyway)

Click-me-do

"peak" in contemp UK slang is closer to bad luck or tough shit, I think: That's peak (for you). certainly the way my kids use it. makes me think of pique.

So “peak” is the equivalent of how very old Americans say “Doesn’t that beat all!”

xpost yeah mine too. but i think it started out as something more intense like whoa fuck, worst moment ever

Cacaphemism is reverse euphemism m, like referring to your spouse as the ol' ball and chain or your car as a jalopy

Sports writers will often talk about a player who, on the cusp of a big career decision, resigns, which means they've inked a new contract with their existing club

Yeah, that one's tripped me up a few times...

that took me a while

It's not the word 'resign', so not a contradictory meaning. It's 'sign' with the prefix 're' added. That's why it should be hyphenated, to avoid the ambiguity.