What are contronyms?

We love linguistic oddities. Like these words that are their own antonyms!

Hosted by Dr. Erica Brozovsky, Otherwords is a PBS web series on Storied that digs deep into this quintessential human trait of language and finds the fascinating, thought-provoking, and funny stories behind the words and sounds we take for granted. Incorporating the fields of biology, history, cultural studies, literature, and more, linguistics has something for everyone and offers a unique perspective on what it means to be human.

Otherwords is a production of Spotzen for PBS Digital Studios.

[DionStabber]

My favourite is "sanctioned". If an activity has been "sanctioned" it is either permitted or banned.

[QuickAttack]

So many times have I bought shelled pistachios thinking they were shelled pistachios.

[w]

Fire alarm went off so I had to go turn it off
That classic

[AJ-Palermo]

"Fine" can be used to describe something fancy, like "fine dining" or "fine china", or something barely adequate, like "the food was fine" or "I'm fine"

[rayshellgauggel]

"Turn the ac down" always gets me

[heehoknoobo]

“Oversight” is a fun one. It can mean to oversee something to ensure it is done properly, or it can describe making an error

[bluewave-cx]

Whats the opposite of a contronym? Ie. "You *up* for a movie?" "Yeah, I'm *down*"

[ameliabrittain]

My favorite is “unlockable”. It means both “cannot be locked” and “can be unlocked”. Not quite opposites, but close.

[scheimong]

My two favourites are "old" and "last". The phrase "the old me" could either mean me in the past (i.e. the younger me) or me in the future (i.e. the older me). And "remove the last item" could either mean remove the previous item or remove the current item which happens to be the final item.

IIRC the word "last" causes so much confusion that it's essentially banned in engineering documentation.

[TheMedicatedArtist]

Amelia Bedelia was my favorite series in elementary school. Though, even as a kid, I was always surprised that she never got fired.

[youremakingprogress]

I love the nod to Amelia Bedelia and her specific confusion in one of the books.

[terriblej]

Once my mother asked me to “trim the tree”, she ment to put the ornaments onto the Christmas tree. I took out the trimmers and cut the branches to make it look nicer. One trim means “to add” something and the other “to remove”

[fabiosilva]

My favorite contronym is depthless. As in so deep you can’t physically measure its depth or something so shallow that depth is irrelevant.

[frenchprint]

we have many in french as well 😭 like "plus" which can mean more or no more; "hôte" = host or guest; "louer" also means both to rent and to lease; "apprendre" to teach/to learn; and "amateur" = beginner/inexperienced or passionate/fan

[benruniko]

As a linguaphile, I really enjoy learning about a type of word that I never knew had a name. That is so cool! No idea how I missed it before but I know now, thank you!

[mrcet]

Just to make things even more interesting, there are also pairs of words that, in concept at least, should be opposites, but instead mean the same thing, like “flammable” and “inflammable.”

[zephenson]

If an employer approaches you to renew your contract, you can either resign or resign.

[nosysprat]

There is a funny one in german: umfahren. It either means to drive around an obstacle, or to drive into it

[fernandosalvador]

The stars are out is also a terrifying cosmic horror story.

[visualgagging]

unironically the word sh*t works like this based on the words that are attached to it and I kinda love it