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That was a fascinating article. > Cleave is often cited as the go-to contronym: it can refer to splitting something apart and to uniting two things Weird, I c
by bxparks 2y ago
That was a fascinating article.
> Cleave is often cited as the go-to contronym: it can refer to splitting something apart and to uniting two things
Weird, I cannot remember ever seeing "cleave" used to mean "uniting two things".
"Inflammable" is my go-to example of a word that shouldn't exist in the English language. Causes too much confusion. I always use "flammable" and "nonflammable".
- Karellen 2y ago> "Inflammable" is my go-to example of a word that shouldn't exist in the English language. What about "inflammation" (from the same root), like what happens when you bruise yourself, or injure a joint? Is that OK? Or you should you get a "flammation" instead? Edit: Or when interpersonal tensions are high, and a situation becomes inflamed?
- bxparks 2y agoHa, you make some good points and I would be ok with those words. But just because the root word (inflame) and some of its derived words are useful, that doesn't mean that we need to allow all possible prefix and suffix derivations of that root word.
- Karellen 2y agoWow. You really want some arbiter of which words are "allowed" or not? That sounds like some real Ministry of Truth type shit. It seems especially weird on a tech site, when tech jargon has historically been rich with wordplay and word construction. http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/introduction.html http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/introduction.html http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/writing-style.html http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/writing-style.html
- wizzwizz4 2y agoThat sense of 'cleave' is used in the Boney M song "Rivers of Babylon". The lyrics can be found in several song aggregation sites, such as the King James version of the Christian Bible: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(King_James)/Psalms#Psalm_137 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(King_James)/Psalms#Psa...
- toast0 2y ago> Weird, I cannot remember ever seeing "cleave" used to mean "uniting two things". Here's an example I stole from the internet [1] "People in the remote mountain villages still cleave to their old traditions." I'll leave other examples of cleavage meaning two things coming together to your imagination. [1] https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/cleave-to https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/cleave-t...
- bxparks 2y agoYeah, never seen that usage of "cleave". I would have expected that sentence written with a different word: "People in the remote mountain villages still cling to their old traditions." With regards to "cleavage", I always thought that it was based on the other meaning of the word, the one about splitting things apart: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cleavage https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cleavage
- paulddraper 2y ago> I cannot remember ever seeing "cleave" used to mean "uniting two things". "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." - Genesis 2:24