a list of words that are only ever used in one phrase and one phrase only

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Hale, Satan

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 15:35 (eighteen years ago) link

Hoist on his own petard is from Hamlet, right?

Pétard in French is slang for a joint.

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 15:40 (eighteen years ago) link

"For 'tis the sport to have the enginer / Hoist with his owne
petar" Shakespeare, Hamlet III iv.

"Hoist" was in Shakespeare's time the past participles of a verb "to hoise", which meant what "to hoist" does now: to lift. A petard (see under "peter out" for the etymology) was an explosive charge detonated by a slowly burning fuse. If the petard went off prematurely, then the sapper (military engineer; Shakespeare's "enginer") who planted it would be hurled into the air by the explosion. (Compare "up" in "to blow up".) A modern rendition might be: "It's fun to see the engineer blown up with his own bomb."

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 16:16 (eighteen years ago) link

cleave

the only word in the english languaged that means one thing and also its opposite.

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 16:37 (eighteen years ago) link

nah, there's loads

― Slumpman (Slump Man), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 17:23 (eighteen years ago) link

eke!

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 17:28 (eighteen years ago) link

quench

When is it ever used not in conjunction with "thurst" ?

― JTS, Tuesday, 23 August 2005 19:57 (eighteen years ago) link

short SHRIFT
out of KILTER

― Si.C@rter (SiC@rter), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 20:08 (eighteen years ago) link

.cx

― LeCoq (LeCoq), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 20:11 (eighteen years ago) link

roffle!

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 20:13 (eighteen years ago) link

(well except for joshblog)

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 20:14 (eighteen years ago) link

One autoanytonym that I just came across that isn't on that list: muck, as a verb, which means to remove the muck from something, and to put the muck on something.

Pyrrhic is a proper name (relating to Pyrrhus), and so I'm not sure it qualifies.

I'll add the sense of "brand" used in "brand [spanking] new".

For "stark naked", see also "stark raving".

I'm kinda with Archel in this, in that I use many of these words in other contexts, but Martin will tsk me as well I suspect.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 20:42 (eighteen years ago) link

Re the autoantonyms: is there a term for flammable/inflammable, words that look like they should be opposites but in fact mean the same thing?

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 20:46 (eighteen years ago) link

'stark naked'

also used with contrast

― oops (Oops), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 21:02 (eighteen years ago) link

scantily clad.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 21:10 (eighteen years ago) link

INTENTS and purposes

― Rotgutt (Rotgutt), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 22:37 (eighteen years ago) link

INTENSIVE PORPOISES

ihttp://www.crru.org.uk/images/porpoise_callout.jpg

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 22:57 (eighteen years ago) link

damn.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 23:06 (eighteen years ago) link

When is it ever used not in conjunction with "thurst" ?

when it's used in conjunction with 'desire'?

I love autoantonyms!

― The Lex (The Lex), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 23:23 (eighteen years ago) link

The word tuffet exists nowhere outside of Miss Muffet's direct sphere of influence.

― Aimless (Aimless), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 23:29 (eighteen years ago) link

kith (and kin)
rack (and ruin)

― isadora (isadora), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 01:45 (eighteen years ago) link

fast = fast asleep!
stark = stuff is always getting put "in stark relief"
hatch = hatch-as-mouth is just a metaphor, though
fro = limited to haircuts
spic = you can imagine why people don't say it a lot
wan = I'm with Archel
wont = as is my wont, as he is wont to do
render = on all yr bills, at least
profuse = lots of "profusion," though
muck = muckraking, mucking drains, etc
scantily = original "scant" gets used plenty
intents = "intent" gets used all the time
rack = nice one

― nabiscothingy, Wednesday, 24 August 2005 02:11 (eighteen years ago) link

'Wreaking' is nothing without 'havoc'

― Lurky McLurk, Wednesday, 24 August 2005 03:01 (eighteen years ago) link

Hue and cry

is "hew and cry," innit?

― Leeeeeeee (Leee), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 03:22 (eighteen years ago) link

i came across a good for real one playing scrabble the other day but i can't remember it for the life of me. it started, i think, with a t, and means essentially an object of fond desire.

also -- livelong, as in "the livelong day"

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 03:27 (eighteen years ago) link

Nab, I just meant "muck" as an autoantonym, not as a word that is used in one phrase only.

You can wreak terror as well.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 03:40 (eighteen years ago) link

Only pools are limpid.

― weather1ngda1eson (Brian), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 06:00 (eighteen years ago) link

Oh, and last night I also thought that "fast" meaning still is in "hold fast" and "make fast". So there.

― I Dream Of Sleep (kate), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 06:52 (eighteen years ago) link

See http://www-personal.umich.edu/~cellis/antagonym.html for words with two contradictory meanings (I don't think 'antagonym' is quite the official term but then I'm not sure there is one.)

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 08:31 (eighteen years ago) link

Well I'm not really worried about this,
But can some one please answer me this -
Apart from on commentary, where else on earth
Can you hear the word 'aplomb' being used?

(Half Man Half Biscuit- Keeping Two Chevrons Apart)

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 08:36 (eighteen years ago) link

Hrmmm. I enjoy summer fruits - sometimes I feel like eating a peach, and sometimes I feel like eating aplomb.

― I Dream Of Sleep (kate), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 08:43 (eighteen years ago) link

Peel and Unpeel aplomb.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 08:44 (eighteen years ago) link

Not quite on topic but I vaguely remember a line in PG Wodehouse about Jeeves (I think) being, if not disgruntled, not exactly gruntled either.

― beanz (beanz), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 08:47 (eighteen years ago) link

I am a very dolent person
I eptly work.
Don't tell me a secret, I'll only be creet.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 08:49 (eighteen years ago) link

Flammable - might burst into flames.
Inflammable - might burst into flames.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 08:50 (eighteen years ago) link

I am norant.

― beanz (beanz), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 08:56 (eighteen years ago) link

http://paul.merton.ox.ac.uk/language/gruntled.html

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 09:45 (eighteen years ago) link

"Contemplate suicide"

Suicide is only ever contemplated, never "thought about" or "considered".

― Come Back Johnny B (Johnney B), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 10:11 (eighteen years ago) link

"lo" and behold

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 18:42 (eighteen years ago) link

Lo: Appears in proclamation-ish uses, ie "Lo, how a rose ere blooming/from tender stem hath sprung". Probably used about as much as O, as in "O Archel, how I admire thee".

Quench: Also a blacksmithing term, meaning to plunge the hot item into water (or into captured enemy soldiers, if you're a samurai). Basically refers to applying liquid.

Rack: Racked with guilt/sobs/etc.

Cleave: Biblical! Genesis 2:25: "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh".

― Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 18:58 (eighteen years ago) link

And really, isn't the opposite of "inept", "apt"? Somehow I always thought it was.

― Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 18:59 (eighteen years ago) link

Some of those "antagonyms" -- e.g. "apparent" and "bound" -- are total bullshit!

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 19:20 (eighteen years ago) link

Yeah, Nabisco, I noticed that about "apparent" -- the two uses given aren't opposites in any true sense, just different applications of the same idea (visibility, broadly speaking). The sloppy reasoning pissed me off so much that I didn't read any further.

― Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 19:38 (eighteen years ago) link

Grrr.

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 20:06 (eighteen years ago) link

Also, I know there's a song lyric that runs "...thought about suicide..." but I can't place it right now. Will think on the way home from work.

― Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 20:34 (eighteen years ago) link

"I've thought so much about suicide / parts of me have already died" is from an Old 97s song. Suspect the overuse of "considered suicide" is just newcasters & reporters trying too hard and then people adopting the construction they hear on the news and think is most correct/proper.

― Laurel, Thursday, 25 August 2005 02:39 (eighteen years ago) link

When you are "disappointed" does that mean your furniture have been removed?

― Beth Parker, Thursday, 25 August 2005 03:12 (eighteen years ago) link

Oops, meant "has." Time for bed.

― Beth Parker, Thursday, 25 August 2005 03:13 (eighteen years ago) link

"Sure as eggs is eggs, mantle with aplomb!"

(I always think of that when I see that word)

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 25 August 2005 03:15 (eighteen years ago) link

Flann O'Brien did this thread first, in 1941.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 25 August 2005 04:15 (eighteen years ago) link

Skipping 133 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Joe Bidin'

― Iris Demented (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, 26 November 2023 00:38 (four months ago) link

hither and yon
arms akimbo

― henry s, Sunday, 26 November 2023 01:35 (four months ago) link

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B9_XAqUIQAANNSL.jpg

― How old Cary Grant? (Tom D.), Sunday, 26 November 2023 02:35 (four months ago) link

https://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/yon

― How old Cary Grant? (Tom D.), Sunday, 26 November 2023 02:36 (four months ago) link

He, I almost linked the entry for “bide” earlier.

― Shifty Henry’s Swing Club (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 26 November 2023 04:16 (four months ago) link

Heh

― Shifty Henry’s Swing Club (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 26 November 2023 04:16 (four months ago) link

I have an app for students, Scots ABC. It has a random word generator, from which I just learned the word “oorie.”

― Shifty Henry’s Swing Club (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 26 November 2023 04:20 (four months ago) link

Doesn’t have any of the example sentences though, for one thing.

― Shifty Henry’s Swing Club (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 26 November 2023 04:32 (four months ago) link

auk (auk and style)
― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, August 23, 2005 2:42 PM (eighteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Turns out "auk and style" doesn't exist as a saying at all, I'd heard "dressed in auk and style" but maybe it was really "dressing up in style" or something. I do know of one song where I'd misheard the latter for the former, but I'm sure my hearing predates it.

Unless, y'know, you know?

― Mark G, Sunday, 26 November 2023 09:50 (four months ago) link

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