A.W.A.D. - Contradictory Words

When you sanction a project, do you approve of it or disapprove? Should one be commended for oversight (watchful care) or reprimanded for oversight (error or omission)? When you resign from a job, do you leave it or re-join (re-sign) it?

When a proposal gets tabled, is it being brought forward for discussion or being laid aside? Depends on which side of the pond you're at. If the former, you're in the UK; if the latter, you're in the US.

I call them fence-sitters. They sit on fences, ready to say one thing or its opposite depending on which side they appear. I'm not talking about politicians. These are words, known by many names: autoantonym, contranym, self-antonym, enantiodromic, amphibolous, janus word, and so on.

Sometimes it's a result of two distinct words evolving into the same form (cleave from Old English cleofian and cleofan) but often a single word develops a split personality and takes on two contradictory senses. All of us have a bit of yin and yang and these words are no exception. The context usually provides a clue to help us understand the right sense in a given place. Look for more such words in AWAD this week.

cleave
PRONUNCIATION: (kleev)
MEANING: verb tr., intr.:
1. To split or divide (past tense: clove or cleft or cleaved; past participle: cloven or cleft or cleaved)
2. To stick, cling (past tense and past participle: cleaved)

ETYMOLOGY:
Sense 1: From Old English cleofan. Ultimately from the Indo-European root gleubh- (to tear apart) that is also the source of glyph, clever, and clove (garlic). And that's also where cleavage, cleft palate, and cloven hooves get their names from.
Sense 2: From Old English cleofian.

continuance
PRONUNCIATION: (kuhn-TIN-yoo-uhns)
MEANING: noun:
1. The state of continuing: remaining in the same place, action, etc.
2. An adjournment of a court proceeding to a future day

ETYMOLOGY: From Anglo-French continuer, from Latin continuare, from continere (to hold together), from com- (together) + tenere (to hold).

asperse
PRONUNCIATION: (a-SPURS)
MEANING: verb tr.:
1. To spread false and malicious charges against someone
2. To sprinkle with holy water

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin aspergere (to sprinkle), from ad- (toward) + spargere (to strew).

copemate, also copesmate
PRONUNCIATION: (KOP-mayt)
MEANING: noun:
1. An associate or friend
2. An opponent or adversary

quiddity
PRONUNCIATION: (KWID-i-tee)
MEANING: noun:
1. The essence of someone or something
2. A trifling point

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin quid (what) which also gave us quidnunc and quid pro quo.

ETYMOLOGY: From French couper (to cut), from Latin colpus (blow), from Greek kolaphos (blow with the fist) + mate (fellow).

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