Words that are their own opposites
Re: Words that are their own opposites
I think ištaraa (root š-r-y) can mean both "to buy" and "to sell" in MSA, at least according to the God Hans Wehr. (I've mostly been introduced to it as meaning 'to buy', though, so this might just be dictionary craziness.) I guess written Arabic would be quite amenable for this sort of thing, especially the roots that seem to 'mean everything' (such as q-ḍ-y).
I'm trying to think of something fun in Slovene, but failing. Maybe it will emerge from some unknown depths of Native Knowledge after a while...
EDIT: okay, just noticed the thread asked for English versions... but why be so narrow-minded?
I'm trying to think of something fun in Slovene, but failing. Maybe it will emerge from some unknown depths of Native Knowledge after a while...
EDIT: okay, just noticed the thread asked for English versions... but why be so narrow-minded?
High Eolic (PDF)
Re: Words that are their own opposites
Oh, that's fine. We can extend it to other languages.
- Miekko
- Avisaru
- Posts: 364
- Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2003 9:43 am
- Location: the turing machine doesn't stop here any more
- Contact:
Re: Words that are their own opposites
noLegion wrote:Criticism.
< Cev> My people we use cars. I come from a very proud car culture-- every part of the car is used, nothing goes to waste. When my people first saw the car, generations ago, we called it šuŋka wakaŋ-- meaning "automated mobile".
Re: Words that are their own opposites
"Predate" conveys responsibility for birth on one hand, and death on the other.
[ˌʔaɪsəˈpʰɻ̊ʷoʊpɪɫ ˈʔæɫkəɦɔɫ]
- linguofreak
- Lebom
- Posts: 123
- Joined: Mon Jun 13, 2005 10:39 pm
- Location: Somewhere
- Contact:
Re: Words that are their own opposites
Similarly, in modern English:Viktor77 wrote:With.
I am with you-Modern English- I am accompanying you, in your favour.
I am with thee-Old-Middle English- I am against you and not in your favour.
To fight with -> to fight against
and
To fight with -> to fight alongside
Re: Words that are their own opposites
That's what I think it should be. As in frigid cold.sano wrote:I have only ever heard the latter definition used.
Oh, here's a Japanese one: kagi means both "lock" and "key". Not maybe opposites, but still confusing as hell. Oh, and then there's dasu that means both "take out" and "hand in", and deru that means both "appear" and "exit".
- Drydic
- Smeric
- Posts: 1652
- Joined: Tue Oct 08, 2002 12:23 pm
- Location: I am a prisoner in my own mind.
- Contact:
Re: Words that are their own opposites
Just to make sure, frigid is used for an antonym of slutty as well meaning cold.Qwynegold wrote:That's what I think it should be. As in frigid cold.sano wrote:I have only ever heard the latter definition used.
Re: Words that are their own opposites
Dont they also have a homonym pair meaning both "fair weather" and "stormy weather"? I think I remember seeing it in a dictionary, but I wouldnt be able to look it up. Of course it could be that one of the terms is archaic ... the dictionary doesnt tell us anything like that. Likewise they seem to deal with the fact that /taiyō/ can mean "sun", "ocean", or "a machine's durability".Qwynegold wrote:That's what I think it should be. As in frigid cold.sano wrote:I have only ever heard the latter definition used.
Oh, here's a Japanese one: kagi means both "lock" and "key". Not maybe opposites, but still confusing as hell. Oh, and then there's dasu that means both "take out" and "hand in", and deru that means both "appear" and "exit".
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/taiyō
Sunàqʷa the Sea Lamprey says:
Re: Words that are their own opposites
Oh and, of course, the all time classic: Hindi kal means both "yesterday" and "tomorrow".
- Aurora Rossa
- Smeric
- Posts: 1138
- Joined: Mon Aug 11, 2003 11:46 am
- Location: The vendée of America
- Contact:
Re: Words that are their own opposites
Which undoubtedly makes translating the title of the classic Star Trek episode Tomorrow Is Yesterday especially tricky.Legion wrote:Oh and, of course, the all time classic: Hindi kal means both "yesterday" and "tomorrow".
"There was a particular car I soon came to think of as distinctly St. Louis-ish: a gigantic white S.U.V. with a W. bumper sticker on it for George W. Bush."
-
- Smeric
- Posts: 1258
- Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2009 3:07 pm
- Location: Miracle, Inc. Headquarters
- Contact:
Re: Words that are their own opposites
कल कल है. kal kal hai.Eddy wrote:Which undoubtedly makes translating the title of the classic Star Trek episode Tomorrow Is Yesterday especially tricky.Legion wrote:Oh and, of course, the all time classic: Hindi kal means both "yesterday" and "tomorrow".
It's true... I think if I had to speak that sentence in Hindi, even an Indian would give pause.
[bɹ̠ˤʷɪs.təɫ]
Nōn quālibet inīquā cupiditāte illectus hoc agō
Yo te pongo en tu lugar...
Taisc mach Daró
Nōn quālibet inīquā cupiditāte illectus hoc agō
Yo te pongo en tu lugar...
Taisc mach Daró
- Ulrike Meinhof
- Avisaru
- Posts: 267
- Joined: Wed Apr 20, 2005 12:31 pm
- Location: Lund
- Contact:
Re: Words that are their own opposites
That's really just two meanings from a SAE point of view. You might just as well say that it means "the day adjacent to today", and which one of them is implied by context.Legion wrote:Oh and, of course, the all time classic: Hindi kal means both "yesterday" and "tomorrow".
Attention, je pelote !
Re: Words that are their own opposites
Finnish: jäädä = to stay; to leave.
Re: Words that are their own opposites
Viscosity means either the ability of a solid/semifluid to flow, or resistance of a fluid/semifluid to flow
The Marshlandic Scratchpad
Featuring: An Intro to Sociolinguistics
-Sebastic (Semitic)-
-Vlachian/Μλός βλάχεαν-
Featuring: An Intro to Sociolinguistics
-Sebastic (Semitic)-
-Vlachian/Μλός βλάχεαν-
- Nesescosac
- Avisaru
- Posts: 314
- Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2007 10:01 pm
- Location: ʃɪkagoʊ, ɪlənoj, ju ɛs eɪ, ə˞θ
- Contact:
Re: Words that are their own opposites
It's the same way in Bengali; Bengali, however, uses adjectives to distinguish the two, and I reckon Hindi does as well.Legion wrote:Oh and, of course, the all time classic: Hindi kal means both "yesterday" and "tomorrow".
I did have a bizarrely similar (to the original poster's) accident about four years ago, in which I slipped over a cookie and somehow twisted my ankle so far that it broke
Aeetlrcreejl > Kicgan Vekei > me /ne.ses.tso.sats/What kind of cookie?
Re: Words that are their own opposites
I'm having trouble thinking of a context where 'to leave' would be an appropriate translation. Although I can think of one specialized context in which it would kind of work as its own opposite:KHS wrote:Finnish: jäädä = to stay; to leave.
Hän jäi bussiin.
3SG stay.PST.3SG bus-ILL
?"He/she stayed on the bus."
Hän jäi bussista.
3SG stay.PST.3SG bus-ELAT
"He/she got off the bus."
Especially the former is a bit iffy, though; a more likely translation in most contexts would probably be "he/she was left on the bus", suggesting a child whose parents forgot him/her there or something. (Incidentally, that's also a possible interpretation of the latter sentence, but with the roles flipped so that the parents got on the bus and the child was accidentally left behind.)
EDIT: Right, it was a link, I could've checked that, I suppose. It seems Wiktionary does give 'to leave' as a possible translation, but AFAIK, that entry could very well have been written by a non-native speaker of English. Do people actually say "to leave the train" when meaning 'to get off the train' in English? Not that it really matters, the opposite meanings are still only there in this one context, and even then, as I said, it's iffy.
In any case, I've seen a few other Finnish words suggested as being examples of this before. Right now, though, I can think of only one - and personally I don't think it even really qualifies: hämärtää. It can certainly be used in opposite contexts, but I'd argue its actual meaning is the same in both:
Ilta hämärtää.
evening get_dim.3SG
"It's getting dark." (lit. "the evening is getting dim")
Aamu hämärtää.
morning get_dim.3SG
"It's starting to dawn." (lit. "the morning is getting dim")
Obviously, getting dim requires the amount of light to decrease if we're starting from full daylight but to increase if the starting point is nightly darkness - but that doesn't mean the word itself means anything other than 'to get dim' in both contexts. Hell, it's even transparently derived from hämärä, 'dim'.
Last edited by Xonen on Sun May 22, 2011 4:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
[quote="Funkypudding"]Read Tuomas' sig.[/quote]
- Niedokonany
- Lebom
- Posts: 244
- Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2007 10:31 pm
- Location: Kliwia Czarna
Re: Words that are their own opposites
the same in polishlinguofreak wrote:Similarly, in modern English:Viktor77 wrote:With.
I am with you-Modern English- I am accompanying you, in your favour.
I am with thee-Old-Middle English- I am against you and not in your favour.
To fight with -> to fight against
and
To fight with -> to fight alongside
uciekajcie od światów konających
Re: Words that are their own opposites
That's the same thing, it only matters if you are quantifying it which one you take.Zayk wrote:Viscosity means either the ability of a solid/semifluid to flow, or resistance of a fluid/semifluid to flow
A lot of the samples are pushing it a little too, for example, Bull as in Papal Bull or short for Bull shit.
[quote]Great wit and madness near abide, and fine a line their bounds divide.[/quote]
Re: Words that are their own opposites
I think that's somewhat similar to French "tout à l'heure" (which can refer to a short time in the future or past): you can tell which is meant due to context.Legion wrote:Oh and, of course, the all time classic: Hindi kal means both "yesterday" and "tomorrow".
You can tell from the history and IP address that they edited from Finland so yeah probably non-native.Xonen wrote:AFAIK, that entry could very well have been written by a non-native speaker of English. Do people actually say "to leave the train" when meaning 'to get off the train' in English?
Re: Words that are their own opposites
Japanese
1) moru "to fill up, pile up"
2) moru "to leak, spill out"
caveats as usual: I dont speak Japanese, so for all I know one of these words is only found in some thousand year old samurai's diary and would never be used today (but it was in a modern Japanese dicitionary). Also, I remember reading something about verbs ending in -ru sometimes being irregular, so maybe they only are homonyms in the citaiton form.
1) moru "to fill up, pile up"
2) moru "to leak, spill out"
caveats as usual: I dont speak Japanese, so for all I know one of these words is only found in some thousand year old samurai's diary and would never be used today (but it was in a modern Japanese dicitionary). Also, I remember reading something about verbs ending in -ru sometimes being irregular, so maybe they only are homonyms in the citaiton form.
Sunàqʷa the Sea Lamprey says:
- Ser
- Smeric
- Posts: 1542
- Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2008 1:55 am
- Location: Vancouver, British Columbia / Colombie Britannique, Canada
Re: Words that are their own opposites
In French, apprendre can mean both "to learn" and "to teach". Although it isn't really its own opposite as the former is when it's transitive and the latter when it's ditransitive.
J'apprends ça.
I'm learning this.
Je lui apprends ça.
I'm teaching this to him/her.
J'apprends ça.
I'm learning this.
Je lui apprends ça.
I'm teaching this to him/her.
Re: Words that are their own opposites
When is there a preference for this word over enseigner?Serafín wrote:In French, apprendre can mean both "to learn" and "to teach". Although it isn't really its own opposite as the former is when it's transitive and the latter when it's ditransitive.
J'apprends ça.
I'm learning this.
Je lui apprends ça.
I'm teaching this to him/her.
-
- Sanci
- Posts: 62
- Joined: Fri Oct 22, 2010 2:26 pm
Re: Words that are their own opposites
Fast can mean to move quickly or not able to move at all (ie stuck fast).
Nice has changed meaning a few times over the years, so it didn't always mean pleasent.
Nice has changed meaning a few times over the years, so it didn't always mean pleasent.
Re: Words that are their own opposites
Swedish "mot" mean both towards but also against. There are a few cases were this become confusing as fujck, even when the context is clear, and I have an example on the tip of my tounge. Just wait.
If I stop posting out of the blue it probably is because my computer and the board won't cooperate and let me log in.!