Clip can mean "to bind together" or "to separate." You clip sheets of paper to together or separate part of a page by clipping something out.
Help means "assist," unless you can’t help doing something, when it means "prevent."ġ5. Screen can mean to show (a movie) or to hide (an unsightly view).ġ4. Weather can mean "to withstand or come safely through" (as in the company weathered the recession) or it can mean "to be worn away" ( the rock was weathered).ġ3.
Off means "deactivated," as in to turn off, but also "activated," as in the alarm went off.ġ2. The meaning "firm, steadfast" came first the adverb took on the sense "strongly, vigorously," which evolved into "quickly," a meaning that spread to the adjective.ġ1. Fast can mean "moving rapidly," as in running fast, or "fixed, unmoving," as in holding fast. Resign, meaning "to quit," is spelled the same as resign, meaning "to sign up again," but it’s pronounced differently.ġ0. This time we have homographs, but not homophones. The past participle has taken various forms: cloven, which survives in the phrase “cloven hoof,” “cleft,” as in a “cleft palate” or “cleaved.”ĩ. Cleave, with the contrary meaning "to split or sever (something)"-as you might do with a cleaver-comes from a different Old English word, clēofan. Cleave, meaning "to cling to or adhere," comes from an Old English word that took the forms cleofian, clifian, or clīfan. Cleave can be cleaved into two homographs, words with different origins that end up spelled the same. If you’re trimming the tree are you using tinsel or a chain saw?Ĩ. Arising from an Old English word meaning "to make firm or strong to settle, arrange," trim came to mean "to prepare, make ready." Depending on who or what was being readied, it could mean either of two contradictory things: "to decorate something with ribbons, laces, or the like to give it a finished appearance" or "to cut off the outgrowths or irregularities of." And the context doesn’t always make it clear. Trim as a verb predates the noun, but it can also mean either adding or taking away. You can stone some peaches, but please don’t stone your neighbor (even if he says he likes to get stoned).ħ. Stone is another verb to use with caution. If you seed the lawn you add seeds, but if you seed a tomato you remove them.Ħ. When you dust are you applying dust or removing it? It depends whether you’re dusting the crops or the furniture.ĥ. Only the context will tell you which it is. Dust, along with the next two words, is a noun turned into a verb meaning either to add or to remove the thing in question. If the gentlemen have withdrawn to the drawing room for after-dinner cigars, who’s left? (The gentlemen have left and the ladies are left.)Ĥ. Left can mean either remaining or departed.
#From dust you came latin plus#
Oversight is the noun form of two verbs with contrary meanings, “oversee” and “overlook.” Oversee, from Old English ofersēon ("look at from above") means "supervise" (medieval Latin for the same thing: super-, "over" plus videre, "to see.") Overlook usually means the opposite: "to fail to see or observe to pass over without noticing to disregard, ignore."ģ. Sanction (via French, from Latin sanctio(n-), from sancire ‘ratify,’) can mean "give official permission or approval for (an action)" or conversely, "impose a penalty on."Ģ. Here’s an ambiguous sentence for you: “Because of the agency’s oversight, the corporation’s behavior was sanctioned.” Does that mean, "Because the agency oversaw the company’s behavior, they imposed a penalty for some transgression," or does it mean, "Because the agency was inattentive, they overlooked the misbehavior and gave it their approval by default"? We’ve stumbled into the looking-glass world of contronyms-words that are their own antonyms.ġ.
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