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Cleave; Sanction

Fun | January 12, 2007 | Tim

Both words, "cleave" and "sanction", can mean the exact opposite thing. "Cleave" can mean both to attach to, and also mean to split into two. "Sanction" can mean allow or encourage, but it can also mean to punish or discourage.

One wonders why we bother with such words.

Comments

Surely this must be an oversight. We must provide some oversight on this matter in the future.

Posted by: Tracey on January 13, 2007 12:44 AM

Clever!

Posted by: Tim (Random Observations) on January 13, 2007 02:03 AM

Apparently these are called contronyms

Posted by: Ryan on January 16, 2007 07:06 PM

Nice one, Tracey. :-)

There are quite a few others, including moot (both "debatable" and "not worthy of debate"), screen (both "view" and "hide from view"), commencement (both "beginning" and "conclusion"), and that eternal bugbear, "below par" (both below average and above average).

Don't you just love English?

Posted by: The Complete Geek on February 3, 2007 07:48 AM

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