9 ms·

"sanction" is one of the dumbest words on earth. "to give official approval" vs "impose a penalty".

by tunesmith 4y ago

cdelsolar 4y ago
Yep and I have no idea what the OP meant by this.
- resoluteteeth 4y ago
  subject to sanctions or export controls, I think, so they can't use exported US products and have to develop their own
nimbius 4y ago
So for those wondering why no US collaboration, you can blame republican octogenarian Frank Wolf for introducting the Wolf amendment prohibiting any and all NASA collaboration with china that isnt expressly sanctioned by the rest of the geriatrics in congress. he even managed to fuck up the 2013 Kepler Science Conference which resulted in a mass boycott after two chinese scientists were banned. We had every opportunity to collaborate with chinese scientists aboard the ISS before this crap. The man is a traitor to science.
- chrononaut 4y ago
  > that isnt expressly sanctioned by the rest of the geriatrics in congress Interestingly, you inadvertently (?) demonstrated OPs comment by using the opposing definition from GP.
  - skrebbel 4y ago
    I bet it was on purpose and I love it.
- jonnybgood 4y ago
  It's a little more nuanced than being a traitor to science given China's strategy in regards to acquisition of scientific research and technology. China doesn't collaborate, it just takes until it reaches scientific and technological parity. Once parity is reached, China cuts collaboration agreements and keeps further advancements within China.
  - deltasevennine 4y ago
    Unlikely. This is more economic rivalry then actual worry that China is going to suddenly flip.
  - FooBarWidget 4y ago
    > Once parity is reached, China cuts collaboration agreements and keeps further advancements within China I'd like to see sources backing up this claim. Huawei for example has 5G patents and research centers outside China. Hualong-1 nuclear plants are exported abroad. Seeing that China is big on business and making money, it makes no sense to keep technology for yourself. There's so much money to be made by selling them!
    - hoseja 4y ago
      1. backdoored surveillance 2. belt and road
      - simiones 4y ago
        As odious as that technology is, as far as I know China is a major supplier of surveillance technology to the world's authoritarian governments. Belt and Road is an international infrastructure investment (and direct construction) project, not sure how its related to technology. It's also no different from all other nations' international aid programs, in that it both helps the receiving nation and makes them indebted to the originator.
      - codedokode 4y ago
        And western equipment is totally not backdoored, and has open source hardware and firmware so that anyone can verify it?
- philwelch 4y ago
  Good for him. Collaborating with the CCP regime is not in the best interest of the US or other Western countries, and in fact, US policy would be better served in the long run by isolating and decoupling from China even more.
lovich 4y ago
There’s a few other self antonyms just in English. “Cleave” immediately comes to mind
- eatmyshorts 4y ago
  "table" is an antonym depending upon your location. For Americans, in the context of a discussion, the verb "table" means to set it aside and stop discussing it. For Brits, it means to bring up a topic and discuss it.
- dr_dshiv 4y ago
  Inflammable?
  - thaumasiotes 4y ago
    Not an autoantonym; that word only has one meaning. Its problem is that it appears to mean the opposite of what it means, not that it has two contradictory meanings.
    - dr_dshiv 4y ago
      “The mighty sequoia, protected by thick bark and with its foliage typically high above the flames, was once considered nearly inflammable.” — Brian Melley, Anchorage Daily News, 23 July 2022
      - omginternets 4y ago
        That’s just misuse of the word.
        nirimda 4y ago
        Sure but by now every rational and reasonable reader must understand that whenever they come across the word "inflammable", the author might have misused it and they need to search for additional signals to identify whether it means "inflammable" or "uninflammable". This is not different than how the rational and reasonable reader treats the use of an autoantonym.
hunglee2 4y ago
yes! It not only has a double meaning, but those meanings are actually opposite of each other
thaumasiotes 4y ago
The phenomenon isn't all that rare. Both senses of "sanction" derive from its original sense of "decree" - you can decree that something is allowed, or that it's not allowed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-antonym https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-antonym lists several similar pairs, in which two contradictory senses developed from one older sense. (Along with many more pairs that are the results of different patterns.)
- IshKebab 4y ago
  It's pretty rare for it to be ambiguous though. Probably only "table" from that list is also ambiguous. Dust could be from a grammatical point of view but it's always going to be obvious from context what is meant.

"sanction" is one of the dumbest words on earth. "to give official approval" vs "impose a penalty".

cdelsolar 4y ago

Yep and I have no idea what the OP meant by this.

resoluteteeth 4y ago
subject to sanctions or export controls, I think, so they can't use exported US products and have to develop their own

nimbius 4y ago

So for those wondering why no US collaboration, you can blame republican octogenarian Frank Wolf for introducting the Wolf amendment prohibiting any and all NASA collaboration with china that isnt expressly sanctioned by the rest of the geriatrics in congress. he even managed to fuck up the 2013 Kepler Science Conference which resulted in a mass boycott after two chinese scientists were banned. We had every opportunity to collaborate with chinese scientists aboard the ISS before this crap. The man is a traitor to science.

chrononaut 4y ago
> that isnt expressly sanctioned by the rest of the geriatrics in congress Interestingly, you inadvertently (?) demonstrated OPs comment by using the opposing definition from GP.
- skrebbel 4y ago
  I bet it was on purpose and I love it.
jonnybgood 4y ago
It's a little more nuanced than being a traitor to science given China's strategy in regards to acquisition of scientific research and technology. China doesn't collaborate, it just takes until it reaches scientific and technological parity. Once parity is reached, China cuts collaboration agreements and keeps further advancements within China.
- deltasevennine 4y ago
  Unlikely. This is more economic rivalry then actual worry that China is going to suddenly flip.
- FooBarWidget 4y ago
  > Once parity is reached, China cuts collaboration agreements and keeps further advancements within China I'd like to see sources backing up this claim. Huawei for example has 5G patents and research centers outside China. Hualong-1 nuclear plants are exported abroad. Seeing that China is big on business and making money, it makes no sense to keep technology for yourself. There's so much money to be made by selling them!
  - hoseja 4y ago
    1. backdoored surveillance 2. belt and road
    - simiones 4y ago
      As odious as that technology is, as far as I know China is a major supplier of surveillance technology to the world's authoritarian governments. Belt and Road is an international infrastructure investment (and direct construction) project, not sure how its related to technology. It's also no different from all other nations' international aid programs, in that it both helps the receiving nation and makes them indebted to the originator.
    - codedokode 4y ago
      And western equipment is totally not backdoored, and has open source hardware and firmware so that anyone can verify it?
philwelch 4y ago
Good for him. Collaborating with the CCP regime is not in the best interest of the US or other Western countries, and in fact, US policy would be better served in the long run by isolating and decoupling from China even more.

lovich 4y ago

There’s a few other self antonyms just in English. “Cleave” immediately comes to mind

eatmyshorts 4y ago
"table" is an antonym depending upon your location. For Americans, in the context of a discussion, the verb "table" means to set it aside and stop discussing it. For Brits, it means to bring up a topic and discuss it.
dr_dshiv 4y ago
Inflammable?
- thaumasiotes 4y ago
  Not an autoantonym; that word only has one meaning. Its problem is that it appears to mean the opposite of what it means, not that it has two contradictory meanings.
  - dr_dshiv 4y ago
    “The mighty sequoia, protected by thick bark and with its foliage typically high above the flames, was once considered nearly inflammable.” — Brian Melley, Anchorage Daily News, 23 July 2022
    - omginternets 4y ago
      That’s just misuse of the word.
      - nirimda 4y ago
        Sure but by now every rational and reasonable reader must understand that whenever they come across the word "inflammable", the author might have misused it and they need to search for additional signals to identify whether it means "inflammable" or "uninflammable". This is not different than how the rational and reasonable reader treats the use of an autoantonym.

hunglee2 4y ago

yes! It not only has a double meaning, but those meanings are actually opposite of each other

thaumasiotes 4y ago

The phenomenon isn't all that rare. Both senses of "sanction" derive from its original sense of "decree" - you can decree that something is allowed, or that it's not allowed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-antonym https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-antonym lists several similar pairs, in which two contradictory senses developed from one older sense. (Along with many more pairs that are the results of different patterns.)

IshKebab 4y ago
It's pretty rare for it to be ambiguous though. Probably only "table" from that list is also ambiguous. Dust could be from a grammatical point of view but it's always going to be obvious from context what is meant.