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Re: Homonyms which are nearly antonyms

Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 12:10 pm
by Qwynegold
Shrdlu wrote:Tackar, men kommer du på några fler för här har det tvärdött? :o
Men bitch. -__-

How about this possible homophone, somewhatish antonym?:

best (beast) vs. bäst (best)

Re: Homonyms which are nearly antonyms

Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 12:55 pm
by Mr. Z
Abi wrote:Would "affect" vs "effect" count?
I don't think they're antonyms, but maybe someone else knows better.

Re: Homonyms which are nearly antonyms

Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2011 1:24 pm
by Okuno
Mr. Z wrote:
Abi wrote:Would "affect" vs "effect" count?
I don't think they're antonyms, but maybe someone else knows better.
I mean, the usual use of "affect" isn't an antonym of "effect" at all however. However, there's also the less-used "Our policy affects the situation," where it means "to cause," which is in a way the opposite of "effect."

Re: Homonyms which are nearly antonyms

Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2011 3:40 pm
by finlay
Okuno wrote:
Mr. Z wrote:
Abi wrote:Would "affect" vs "effect" count?
I don't think they're antonyms, but maybe someone else knows better.
I mean, the usual use of "affect" isn't an antonym of "effect" at all however. However, there's also the less-used "Our policy affects the situation," where it means "to cause," which is in a way the opposite of "effect."
This is "Our policy effects the situation". It's rare usages like these (yes, it's a verb, but it's not the same verb as "affect", which means something like making a change in something else rather than "cause" from scratch) that can trip people up. (as quoth xkcd)

Image

Re: Homonyms which are nearly antonyms

Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 8:30 am
by Chuma
Oh man, I have a list of these somewhere. Can't find it now.

There's "sanction", which usually means that you approve of something, but can also mean that you don't.

And the music term "obligato", which in older music means a part that can't be left out, but in some newer music means one that can.

Re: Homonyms which are nearly antonyms

Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 5:27 am
by Skomakar'n
Chibi wrote:
jal wrote:Iirc, the Thai words for "hit" and "miss" (as in a target, used e.g. when playing darts or the like) only differ in tone.


JAL
Oh god, Mandarin is full of these. Well, maybe not full, but I can think of at least two off the top of my head:

买,卖 (mai4, mai3), meaning 'sell' and 'buy' respectively.
那,哪 (na4, na3), meaning 'there' and 'where' respectively.

The buy/sell example reminds me of German kaufen/verkaufen for buy/sell.
Faroese has /hE:r/ 'here' and /hE:ar/ 'there'. : D

Re: Homonyms which are nearly antonyms

Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 4:57 pm
by Qwynegold
Oh, I came up with one for Swedish! Grina can mean both grin and cry.

Re: Homonyms which are nearly antonyms

Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 5:04 pm
by MisterBernie
Qwynegold wrote:Oh, I came up with one for Swedish! Grina can mean both grin and cry.
Hmm, now I wonder how German grinsen and greinen fit in there.

Re: Homonyms which are nearly antonyms

Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 5:25 pm
by ----
Ooh I've got one! English slang 'bad' for good; cool; awesome, and then there's 'bad', which means 'bad'

Re: Homonyms which are nearly antonyms

Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2011 2:29 pm
by Qwynegold
MisterBernie wrote:
Qwynegold wrote:Oh, I came up with one for Swedish! Grina can mean both grin and cry.
Hmm, now I wonder how German grinsen and greinen fit in there.
Aha! So the Swedish homonym is probably because of sound changes and not semantic drift.

Re: Homonyms which are nearly antonyms

Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2011 5:28 pm
by Rui
Theta wrote:Ooh I've got one! English slang 'bad' for good; cool; awesome, and then there's 'bad', which means 'bad'
As well as 'sick,' 'wicked,' 'ill,' or whatever else you use based on your age and where you live. I have a good friend from San Diego who uses 'dank' in this context (she's also a huge pothead)

Re: Homonyms which are nearly antonyms

Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2011 9:06 pm
by ----
I thought 'dank' referred exclusively to marijuana that was really good or something, I've never heard it applied to non illegal things.

Re: Homonyms which are nearly antonyms

Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2011 9:14 pm
by Rui
Theta wrote:I thought 'dank' referred exclusively to marijuana that was really good or something, I've never heard it applied to non illegal things.
That's where it originated, but she's definitely used to to refer to at the very least food items like burgers/chicken/sauce and whatnot. I forget if she ever uses it with anything else.

Re: Homonyms which are nearly antonyms

Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 12:56 pm
by linguofreak
Cleave.

Re: Homonyms which are nearly antonyms

Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 1:07 pm
by Shrdlu
I always thought dank was negative, like "mucky". :?

edit: like "the weather was dank, dark and misty".

Re: Homonyms which are nearly antonyms

Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 2:48 pm
by Rui
Shrdlu wrote:I always thought dank was negative, like "mucky". :?

edit: like "the weather was dank, dark and misty".
It does, but in colloquial speech, it much more often refers to something good. ex: This song is dank, meaning the song is good.

Re: Homonyms which are nearly antonyms

Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 10:45 pm
by Okuno
finlay wrote: This is "Our policy effects the situation". It's rare usages like these (yes, it's a verb, but it's not the same verb as "affect", which means something like making a change in something else rather than "cause" from scratch) that can trip people up. (as quoth xkcd)
Ughn, yeah... I did do that, didn't I... because I never use it! I literally use the word "verisimilitude" more often! I've used "mendicant" more often, for that matter! People have an easier time understanding "Jaa, mata." when they don't even speak Japanese! (Seriously, the context is so strong, they don't even bat an eyelash half the time.) I therefore debate whether it's a real part of the language (though yeah, that's exactly the comic I was thinking of and should have looked up again).

Re: Homonyms which are nearly antonyms

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 11:04 pm
by Bedelato
Marion Blancard wrote:One which comes to mind is /raiz/ in English, which can be either "raise" or "raze".
You mean /reiz/, right...? Right?

Re: Homonyms which are nearly antonyms

Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 8:52 am
by alice
Bedelato wrote:
Marion Blancard wrote:One which comes to mind is /raiz/ in English, which can be either "raise" or "raze".
You mean /reiz/, right...? Right?
Touché, although I really meant /rez/.

Re: Homonyms which are nearly antonyms

Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 10:59 am
by finlay
tomato, tomato (it doesn't matter what you label your phonemes with)

also we've been over this.

Re: Homonyms which are nearly antonyms

Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 12:08 pm
by Rui
Marion Blancard wrote:Touché, although I really meant /rez/.
[rez] is /rɛz/ in South African English

(and yes, I know you wrote yours in //, but I just wanted to point it out :P)

Re: Homonyms which are nearly antonyms

Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2011 5:26 am
by L'alphabētarium
dust: as a verb, it can mean both "I remove dust" or "I apply dust (or powder)*"
*although the first meaning is much more usual

Re: Homonyms which are nearly antonyms

Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2011 6:07 am
by Herr Dunkel
Near homonyms that are near antonims?

Schiss/Schoß
I shit *shat / womb

Well, they're not exactly antonyms, truth be told, but they have opposite connotations: schiss = bad ; Schoß = good, warm, fuzzy

Re: Homonyms which are nearly antonyms

Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2011 6:16 am
by Jipí
Nope.

Re: Homonyms which are nearly antonyms

Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2011 6:25 am
by Herr Dunkel
Guitarplayer wrote:Nope.
What, shitting is good now? DAMN YOU SCATOPHILIC ZBB