words with contradictory meanings

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