For example, “flammable” and “inflammable” both describe an object that can easily catch on fire. I can also think of “ceased” and “deceased”, both of which can mean someone or something has been brought to an end.
edit: Some people are including words that can also mean its opposite (like sanction or table), those are cool too! The more weird words, the better!
Up and down
“Are you up for that?” “Yeah, I’m down”
“Are you down for that?” “Yeah, I’m up”
“flammable” and “inflammable” both describe an object that can easily catch on fire.
WHAT A COUNTRY!
Hi Dr.Nick!
Two examples where erroneous usage has resulted in this paradox:
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Regardless and irregardless
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“I couldn’t care less” and “I could care less”
I don’t think either were ever said by competently literate people (wtf is “irregardless”? And do they mean they could “care less” about a subject or do they mean the opposite but don’t understand negation?) so idk if this fits what OP was saying entirely. They’re just obvious mistakes that have been normalized as people got dumber, right?
Irregardless means “without a lack of regard”. Ergo vis-à-vis if you say irregardless you are actually fully regarded
👏😆
People will defend those until they’re blue in the face, and I don’t know why. It’s always the “language is always in a state of flux” bullshit, like improper negations are normal and expected.
Well, I could care less, but I don’t care enough to determine exactly how little I could.
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suck and blow
…are opposites
Except on my… Other account.
One that sorta works:
it’s all uphill / downhill from here -> it’s only going to get worse
not really; “it’s all downhill from here” means that the hardest part is behind you, and progress will be easier from here
Near miss and near hit both mean a close call.
My pedestrian is half run over.
In French there is personne (someone) and personne (no one), plus (more) and plus (no more)
inflammable and flammable
What a country!
One way mirror and two way mirror
Antiautonym is what you’re looking for.
Slightly different, but single words meaning multiple conflicting things seem to come to mind more readily:
- Drop meaning both to abandon or release a product
- Table meaning both put something aside or putting up for discussion
- Literally meaning both literal and figurative
Within a region, does table ever mean both of those?
In the US, it means to set aside or ignore it, but never means to continue the discussion. In the UK it means to discuss it, does it ever mean to also set it aside?
I think there’s some bleed between different countries, given increasing global connectivity. I’ve heard both definitions in Australia which makes sense as we are influenced by both countries but I suspect the British version is more common.
For Australians, yeah, yeah nah, yeah yeah nah, nah, nah yeah nah, nah nah yeah, all have subtly different positive and/or negative meanings, often dependent on the situation.
Cleave
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Yeah, right.
