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13 hilarious examples of contronyms

Dubai - Shashi Tharoor's World of Words is a weekly column in which the politician, diplomat, writer and wordsmith par excellence dissects words and language

A recent headline declared that the United States had sanctioned Iranian oil supplies. Many readers weren’t sure what the newspaper meant, since “sanction” is a contronym — a word that can also mean the opposite of itself, a feature more common in English than in any other language. In this instance, confusion was inevitable, because the headline could mean the President had permitted the oil supplies to flow, or that he had prohibited them. If you get a sanction from an authority to do something, it means the former; but if you impose sanctions on someone or something, it means the latter. The word “sanction” can either refer to approval for a course of action or a penalty for disobeying an injunction. That’s why it’s a contronym, also sometimes known as a “Janus word” (after the Roman god with two faces).

Confused? “Sanction” is not the only case of a word that can be used to mean its own opposite. We use contronyms all the time without realising it; the most common contronym might be the word “off”, since “setting off” an alarm activates a warning bell, while “switching off” the alarm deactivates it — and both use the same “off”. If you find too many objects gathering dust at home, you can tell your maid that she needs to dust more so there is less dust (that’s not a contradiction, just a contronym!). Similarly, strike can be used to mean to create (as in “strike a deal”) or to eliminate (“strike that line from the record”).

When the United Nations created an in-house inspectorate and named the department the Office of Internal Oversight Services, I warned my colleagues, only half in jest, that every time the new office messed up, they could say, “Hey, it was just an oversight.” Oversight is also a contronym: it can mean watchful supervision, but also an inadvertent error. Similarly, the word “cleave” can mean both “to cut apart” (“the warrior cleaved his enemy’s head from his neck”) or “to bind together” (“the infant cleaved to his mother’s breast”). So can “clip” mean to cut something (as in a newspaper clipping) or to hold them together (“Can you clip those clippings together please?”). A criminal might “bolt” (meaning he runs away or “exits quickly”) but you can bolt the door shut (meaning fix it in place to immobilise it).

In one of my earlier columns, I wrote about the amusing differences between British and American English that can often lead to misunderstandings. There are contronyms that demonstrate the truth of the adage that America and Britain are two countries divided by a common language. For example, “table” — to table a bill means “to put it up for debate” in Britain, while if you table a bill in the US Congress, it means “to remove it from debate”. A “moot” point is one that requires discussion and debate in Britain, whereas in America, if an issue is moot, it is dead and unnecessary to discuss.

American usage multiplies the range of contronyms. A “hold-up”, in the US, can either support or impede: wooden beams might hold up the ceiling, but a mugger might trap you in a hold-up at gunpoint (or traffic can create a hold-up on the road). Also in America, you can use bills to pay bills (what we call “notes” are “bills” in the US, so “dollar bills” can be used to settle your restaurant bills!)

And if you say you have “finished” something, is it completed or destroyed? (One wag on WhatsApp circulated an explanation of the difference between “completed” and “finished”: “When you marry the right woman, you are ‘complete’. If you marry the wrong woman, you are ‘finished’. And when the right woman catches you with the wrong woman, you are ‘completely finished!’)

“Give out” is our final example: a charity can give out aid to flood victims, or an exhausted victim fleeing the floods can collapse when his legs give out. My space has just given out, so I’ll call it a day. That’s perhaps the most common contronym of all — you usually call it a day when it’s night!

wknd@khaleejtimes.com