Have you ever known anyone who when they talk just talk? They don’t gesticulate with their hands. Their eyes don’t roam around the room. They don’t pet their cat or dog. They don’t look through their mail. They just talk. They stare into your eyes and talk, their mind not going elsewhere. That’s just not normal under most circumstances, is it?
Homonyms are confusing enough, but there is another category of confusing words: contronyms. Contronyms—also spelled contranyms—are also known as auto-antonyms, antagonyms, enantiodromes, self-antonyms, antilogies, and Janus words. Janus was the Roman god of beginnings and endings. He is often depicted with two faces looking in opposite directions. dabster A dabster is one who is…
When you dust the blades on your ceiling fan, are you removing the fine particles of dirt or adding them? When you have a fast horse, does it move quickly or is it stuck in one spot? You state that something is finished. Is it completed, or is it destroyed? dike A dike is a wall or…
