4 ms·
Speaking of words ... here's a fun one: "founder" vs. "flounder". Both words can be nouns and verbs: • founder [noun] – one who establishes • founder [verb]
by kashyapc 5y ago
Speaking of words ... here's a fun one: "founder" vs. "flounder". Both words can be nouns and verbs:
• founder [noun] – one who establishes
• founder [verb] – to sink / to collapse / to fail
• flounder [noun] – flatfish
• flounder [verb] – to struggle to move / to proceed clumsily
Apparently[1], you cannot say "a ship flounders", but that "a ship founders", as jarring as it sounds. The Merriam-Webster has an excellent article on it here[1]. It begins this way:
"The English language does not care if you are happy or sad. It is oblivious to your shrill entreaties for an orderly and sensible vocabulary. As proof of this supreme indifference we need look no further than the words 'founder' and 'flounder', for no language that cares about its speakers would ever allow this kind of semantic cruelty to exist."
[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/can-a-ship-flounder https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/can-a-ship-flo... — "Can a Ship 'Flounder'?"
- Karunamon 5y agoThat reminds me of my favorite auto-antonym - a word where the noun and verb forms have completely opposite meanings. The lawmaker sanctioned(v) the sanction(n) Where the verb form is to permit, and the noun form is to restrict! English is weird.
- dhosek 5y agoIt's very common for writers, especially journalists, to use to sanction to mean to impose sanctions. I've given up on correcting them and in their defense, the OED has the verb to sanction meaning to impose punishment dating back to the early 19th century in legal contexts.
- rexreed 5y agoHere's another one that uses the same word in opposing contexts: After he left out the left door, there was no one left.
- dhosek 5y agoSo many people use flounder when they mean founder.