House of Translation LLC - What is CONTRONYM?
The term "contronym" was originally coined by Joseph T. Shipley in 1960. A contronym is a curious phenomenon in language. It is a word with two opposite meanings. The meaning depends on the context.
A contronym is both a homograph and an antonym. A homograph is a word that has the same written form but has different meanings. For example, “agape” means both “love” and “wide open”. An antonym is a word that means the opposite of another like “bad” and “good”. Bad is also an example to illustrate what a contronym is because it either means “not good” or “very good”. So for the rock stars out there – “You’re Bad” really means – “You’re Good”.
Some contronyms come from different meanings between two dialects. In British English you will say “to table a bill” means “to put it up for debate” while in American English you will say “to remove it from debate”.
A contronym is both a homograph and an antonym. A homograph is a word that has the same written form but has different meanings. For example, “agape” means both “love” and “wide open”. An antonym is a word that means the opposite of another like “bad” and “good”. Bad is also an example to illustrate what a contronym is because it either means “not good” or “very good”. So for the rock stars out there – “You’re Bad” really means – “You’re Good”.
Some contronyms come from different meanings between two dialects. In British English you will say “to table a bill” means “to put it up for debate” while in American English you will say “to remove it from debate”.
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