Tag Archives: auto-antonyms

WHAT IS A RENTER?

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There are many ambiguous words in the English language. ‘Renter’ is on the top of my list. Is a renter a tenant or a landlord? Suppose you say: “Max rents the house on the corner.” Is Max the tenant or is he the landlord? Does Max pay rent or does he receive rent? Google Dictionary defines ‘renter’ as ‘a person who rents an apartment, car, or other object. That definition doesn’t help. ‘A person who rents an apartment’ could be either a tenant or a landlord.

AUTOANTONYMS.‘Renter’ is an autoantonym. An autoantonym is a word that has 2 opposite definitions. In other words, the word is its own antonym. My Uncle Maurice got me interested in autoantonyms when I was a kid. He still likes them. Here are a few examples of autoantonyms.Clip can mean to attach or to detach. If you clip papers together, then you attach them, but if you clip an article from a newspaper, then you detach it. I remember this word was on Uncle Maurice’s list.
Dust can mean to remove dust or to add dust. If you dust your living room, you are removing dust, but if you dust donuts with powdered sugar, then you are adding dust.
Off can men to activate or to deactivate. ‘The dog set off the burglar alarm, so we turned the burglar alarm off.’
Oversight can mean failing to see mistakes or trying to find mistakes. ‘An oversight by the company’s CPA led to a million dollar loss. His oversight was discovered by the oversight committee.’
Table can mean to start a discussion or end a discussion. If you table a meeting, you are starting a discussion, but if you table a motion at the meeting, then you are removing it from discussion.
Trim can mean to add or to remove. What does it mean to ‘trim a tree?’ If you trim a Christmas tree, then you are adding decorations, but if you trim a tree in your backyard, you are removing unwanted branches.
There are dozens of other autoantonyms in the English language.

Auto-Antonymns

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Have you ever heard of an auto-antonym? My Uncle Maurice told me about these odd words decades ago. An auto-antonym is a word which has two opposite definitions. The word is its own antonym. Maurice gave me a long list of auto-antonyms, but I lost that list a long time ago. The only word that I remember from Maurice’s list is ‘clip.’ ‘Clip’ can mean to attach or to detach. When you clip documents together, you attach them, but when you clip a coupon, you detach it from the newspaper. There are a lot of other auto-antonyms. Here are a few of them.

‘Inflammable’ literally means ‘capable of burning’, but when most people use the word, they mean ‘incapable of burning’. many people use the word ‘imflammable’, but ‘imflammable’ is not a real word, so its meaning is anyone’s guess. Because of this confusion, most fire departments prefer to use the words ‘flammable’ or ‘combustible’ instead.

 
‘Oversight’ can mean ‘to examine’ or ‘to fail to examine.’ (The oversight committee was supposed to review the contract, but they didn’t. It was an oversight.)
‘To rent’ can mean ‘to borrow’ or ‘to lend.’ If you say that ‘Julian rents his house’, that could mean that Julian is the landlord or that Julian is the tenant.

‘Shelled’ can mean either ‘with the shell on’ (Eileen ate a soft-shelled crab sandwich) or ‘with the shell off’ (Lauren bought a pint of shelled oysters.)

‘To dust’ can mean either ‘to remove dust’ (Bryna dusted the living room) or ‘to add dust’ (Lilah dusted the chocolate truffles with cocoa powder.)
‘Left’ can mean ‘to leave’ (Adin left the room) or ‘to stay’ (Bob was the last man left.)

‘To fight with’ can mean to fight against (I had to fight with Michael to get him to take out the garbage) or to fight alongside (I promised to fight with Eleanor to get Mayor McCheese reelected.)
‘To seed’ can mean to add seeds (Ben seeded his front lawn) or to remove seeds (Karyn seeded a tomato.)

‘Off’ can mean to activate (Piper set the alarm off) or to deactivate (Howard turned the alarm off.)
‘Citation’ is either an award for good behavior (The fireman received a citation for bravery) or a penalty for bad behavior (The policeman gave the driver a citation for making an illegal turn.)
I think auto-antonyms must be frustrating for foreigners learning to speak English, but there are a lot of frustrating things about the English language. I wonder if they have auto-antonyms in other languages.