Posts by Pat:
My new word is…
…contronym!
It’s a new word to me, even though I was an English teacher in a previous life!
A contronym is a word that can be its own opposite!
In German, contronyms are called Janus words, named after the two-faced God of duality, Janus, in Roman mythology.
So…you know synonyms are words that share the same or similar meanings. And…you know that antonyms have the opposite meanings. But what about contronyms?
Contronyms are words that have two meanings that contradict each other , like “clip” which can mean to fasten together OR mean to cut apart.
Here are a few more examples:
Apology can mean a statement of contrition for an action OR a defense of one.
Bolt can mean both to secure in place OR to dash away suddenly.
Left can mean both remaining OR also departed.
Off can mean either activated OR deactivated. For example to “set off”= activated OR to “switch off”= deactivated.
Peer can mean a person of the nobility OR an equal.
Weather can mean to withstand OR to wear away.
(Just a reminder…when we use a contronym, we need to provide the reader with enough context to figure out which of the two contradictory meanings we mean!)
Our English language is amazing, don’t you think?
It’s never too late to learn a new word, which of course can mean a new concept/idea/expression!
Words are fun!
What a difference a word makes!
What we say has power to affect others and our experiences with them. And the words we choose to describe ourselves and our situations determines much of our experience! Are we… rich or temporarily blessed, lonely or enjoying solitude, or struggling or growing through resistance? We know that… well-educated isn’t the same as smart, talents […]
You don’t have time?
We will NEVER have “enough” time. Because we can’t “have” time. Time is not something that can be had by us humans. Time isn’t even real! It’s just something we humans created to make our lives more convenient. Time is like a handful of sand…the harder we try to grip it, the more it slips […]
Faith is trust?
“Faith” is trusting the process. We know that SOMETHING is making our heart beat right now, our lungs function, the grass grow, and the planets spin. So whether we admit it or not, what we have is FAITH. We have faith that our heart will keep beating and that we’ll wake up tomorrow morning. We […]
Vacation complaints…
Vacations are a national tradition (as is this perennial childhood complaint!) This post is of actual complaints received by “Thomas Cook Vacations” from dissatisfied customers. I think you’ll be as amazed as I was by them! “We booked an excursion to a water park but no one told us we had to bring our own […]
The “gift” of our breath
The phrase “take a deep breath” is misleading. The breath isn’t something we can just “take.” Breathing is a gift, a miracle, offered to us over and over again. Yet much like our health, we often take it for granted right up until the moment we no longer have it. “Remember to breathe” means remembering […]
July 4 humor!
Bringing you some humor for this special day of days. (And if it seems like it came from one who used to be a teacher, well, you’re right!) Father William, the old priest, made it a practice to visit the parish school one day a week. He walked into the 4th grade class, where the […]
The tide does come in!
No matter how bad our current situation appears to be now, nature guarantees a turn for the better. Change is always happening. Nature’s cycles are dependable. We can’t rush a seedling; pulling on it to make it grow faster will cause it to die. We can’t rush a baby; whevever possible, we have to let […]
A child’s story…
A little girl in second grade underwent chemotherapy for leukemia. When she returned to school, she wore a scarf to hide the fact that she had lost all her hair. But some of the children pulled it off, and in their nervousness laughed and made fun of her. The little girl was mortified and that […]
No pun intended?
The pun (also known as paranomania) is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term for an intended humorous effect. You can decide if you think these are funny or just punny! Writing my name is cursive is my signature move. I lost my job as a stage designer. I left […]