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There’s a few other self antonyms just in English. “Cleave” immediately comes to mind
by 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 agoInflammable?
- thaumasiotes 4y agoNot 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 agoThat’s just misuse of the word.
- nirimda 4y agoSure 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.
- omginternets 4y agoThere's a difference between misusing a word, and a word that has two accepted meanings.
- toyg 4y agoBrian Melley needs to be acquainted with the word nonflammable, which is the one he really wanted to use.
- thaumasiotes 4y agoThere's no need to use a single word; that sentence is trying to sound impressive, not concise. Try "The mighty sequoia, protected by thick bark and with its foliage typically high above the flames, was once considered nearly impervious to fire."
- IshKebab 4y agoThat only means "to split". I don't think it can mean "to join together" can it? Unless you mean "cleave to" which is rare and not really the same word.
- lovich 4y agoCleave can definitely mean to adhere to. Its not a word I hear everyday but I wouldnt necessarily call it rare
- IshKebab 4y agoIf I say "I cleaved a log" there is no chance of you thinking I meant "I cleaved to a log".
- lovich 4y agoAnd if I say I cleaved the halves together, you’d have no chance of thinking that I meant I cut them apart. It’s English, you need context to tell what definition is being used for any word with multiple definitions
- IshKebab 4y ago> I cleaved the halves together I would say what are you talking about? That makes no grammatical sense.
- lovich 4y agoIt does? One definition of cleave is to join or adhere things together. It’s not a new slang definition, you can look it up in any dictionary.
- IshKebab 4y agoI did look it up in a dictionary. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cleave#Etymology_2 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cleave#Etymology_2 > (intransitive, rare) Followed by' to or unto: to adhere, cling, or stick fast to something. Something can cleave to another thing, but you can't cleave two things together. It's grammatically the same as the word "cling". You can cling to something but you can't cling two things together. It doesn't make sense.