Skip to content


Just so you know: 14 Words That Are Their Own Opposites

1. 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.’
*
2. 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’ + videre ‘to see.’) “Overlook” usually means the opposite: ‘to fail to see or observe; to pass over without noticing; to disregard, ignore.’
*
3. Left can mean either remaining or departed. If the gentlemen have withdrawn to the drawing room for after-dinner cigars, who’s left?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.)
*
4. 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. Only the context will tell you which it is. When you dust are you applying dust or removing it? It depends whether you’re dusting the crops or the furniture.
*
5. Seed can also go either way. If you seed the lawn you add seeds, but if you seed a tomato you remove them.
*
6. Stone is another verb to use with caution. You can stone some peaches, but please don’t stone your neighbor (even if he says he likes to get stoned).
*
7. Trim as a verb predates the noun, but it can also mean either adding or taking away. 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. If you’re trimming the tree are you using tinsel or a chain saw?
*
8. Cleave can be cleaved into two “homographs,” words with different origins that end up spelled the same. “Cleave,” meaning ‘to cling to or adhere,’ comes from an Old English word that took the forms cleofian, clifian, or clīfan. “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. The past participle has taken various forms: “cloven,” which survives in the phrase “cloven hoof,” “cleft,” as in a “cleft palate” or “cleaved.”
*
9. Resign works as a contronym in writing. This time we have homographs, but not homophones. “Resign,” meaning ‘to quit,’ is spelled the same as “resign,” meaning ‘to sign up again,’ but it’s pronounced differently.
*
10. Fast can mean “moving rapidly,” as in “running fast,” or ‘fixed, unmoving,’ as in “holding fast.” If colors are fast they will not run. 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.
*
11. Off means ‘deactivated,’ as in “to turn off,” but also ‘activated,’ as in “The alarm went off.”
*
12. 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.”
*
13. Screen can mean ‘to show’ (a movie) or ‘to hide’ (an unsightly view).
*
14. Help means ‘assist,’ unless you can’t help doing something, when it means ‘prevent.’

14 Words That Are Their Own Opposites | Mental Floss.

Posted in Did you Know?.

Tagged with , , .


March Book Display

Salem Witch TrialsAnniversary of the Salem Witch Hysteria – March 1692

The Massachusetts Bay Colony village of Salem had experienced a strange February in which several teenaged girls exhibited bizarre behavior and attributed their ailments to witches. Come check out the history of what happened next in Salem and other parts of New England, in our March Display at the Todd Library.

Posted in Library Display.


Open States: search legislative data in all 50 states

The  Sunlight Foundation launches Open States , a site with searchable legislative data for all 50 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico. Open States is the only comprehensive database of activities from all state capitols that makes it easy to find your state lawmaker, review their votes, search for legislation, track bills and much more.

via Open States: search legislative data in all 50 states – Boing Boing.

Posted in Did you Know?.

Tagged with , , .


Google Pays Apple $1 Billion A Year To Be Default Search Provider On iOS

It is really not much more complicated than this:

Google Pays Apple $1 Billion A Year To Be Default Search Provider On iOS.

$1 Billion a year to be Apple’s search default.  So, I guess there is money to be made in search (and retrieval)…

…if you are Apple.

Google Pays Apple $1 Billion A Year To Be Default Search Provider On iOS [Report] | Cult of Mac.

Posted in Did you Know?.

Tagged with , , , , .


February Book Display

Anniversary of Soviet Troop Withdrawal from Afghanistan – 1989

The USSR’s target of withdrawal of all Soviet troops from Afghanistan by this date was essentially met, ending more than nine years of intervention in a civil war. Check out some of the “future” developments of the country afterwards through the WCC Library Collection.

Posted in Library Display.