# Are there any words that have come to mean the exact opposite of their original meaning? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 26, 2010, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-words-that-have-come-to-mean-the-exact-opposite-of-their-original-meaning/544624 "2010-06-26T21:03:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Cat\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/96bed5/32.png) [@Cat\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Jones)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-words-that-have-come-to-mean-the-exact-opposite-of-their-original-meaning/544624/161 "2010-07-11T12:44:58Z")
> [@markle9](#): > > There’s a good example of this in Hamlet, Act I, Scene 4! Hamlet wants to follow the Ghost, and Horatio and Marcellus try to stop him. Hamlet says: > > “Unhand me, gentlemen. By heaven, I’ll make a ghost of him that lets me!” > > “Let” meant “stop” in Shakespeare’s time, and now it means the exact opposite. Inside the font cover of my current UK passport is the following (bolding mine) … \*Her Britannic Majesty’s Secretary of State Requests and requires in the name of Her Majesty all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely **without let or hindrance** , and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary \* ---
**Author:** ![lunalobo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/839c29/32.png) [@lunalobo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lunalobo)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2015, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-words-that-have-come-to-mean-the-exact-opposite-of-their-original-meaning/544624/162 "2015-03-23T10:26:55Z")
Taken from Wikipedia: some pairs of contronyms are true homographs, i.e., distinct words with different etymology which happen to have the same form. For instance cleave “separate” is from Old English clēofan, while cleave “adhere” is from Old English clifian, which was pronounced differently. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2015, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-words-that-have-come-to-mean-the-exact-opposite-of-their-original-meaning/544624/163 "2015-03-23T14:46:58Z")
Great thread. Not huge, yet, but great. Background sound you hear: _Finnegans Wake_ clearing its throat: _coincidentia oppositorum_/coincidence of contraries, an idea of Bruno Nolan, iscelebrated throughout the book. His ideas in general are fooled around with, not the least as another rationale for his neologisms of double-back words, a few of which I’ll dig up because they’re wonderful and one of the gajillion “keys” to the book. (The antecedent “words” in that sentence yields a plural and singular. Sorry for the infelicity.) “Double back?” That sounds like “revolutionary,” as we are informed up thread (I’ll get the cite in a later post). By that logic, these should be called, rather, “back words” (nice homonym/self definition there!). But “retronyms” is taken. “Antagonyms” is too specific of an _agon_ of meanings–even though it is perfectly correct; we’re all having fun at a boxing match. But it sounds, I don’t know, _mean_, prickly, and not as much fun as we’re having. Joyce expounded and expanded Bruno’s coincidence-of-contraries not only by investing it structurally in _Wake_’s largest and smallest structure and characterizations, but, following the idea logically to the limit of what how it can be communicated, invested the communication mode itself–the English language–with the principle. Agon? Sure, whatever. It all works–not “works out in the end” because there isn’t an end–plurabile love makes sure of that. I truly and really suggest you read about Bruno Nolan (repeat wiki cite)–undisciplined but brilliant (lost out to Galileo for job) scientist and philosopher, who would be a classic SD poster, an attribute I bet never appearing in any of his bios. Galileo, they said, was almost a “martyr,” but Bruno was set on fire. \*\* I’m Joe Biden, and I approve of the thread, or at least the literal portion. \*\* ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2015, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-words-that-have-come-to-mean-the-exact-opposite-of-their-original-meaning/544624/164 "2015-03-23T15:18:41Z")
“Electrocute” probably counts. Officially, the word means someone was _killed_ by an electric shock. But nowadays it’s frequently used as meaning any kind of electric shock, including a very mild one. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2015, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-words-that-have-come-to-mean-the-exact-opposite-of-their-original-meaning/544624/165 "2015-03-23T16:34:23Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > “Electrocute” probably counts. Officially, the word means someone was _killed_ by an electric shock. But nowadays it’s frequently used as meaning any kind of electric shock, including a very mild one. 😕 I don’t recall hearing _electrocute_ ever being used for anything other than a lethal electric shock. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2015, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-words-that-have-come-to-mean-the-exact-opposite-of-their-original-meaning/544624/166 "2015-03-23T17:08:03Z")
> [@Canadjun](#): > > 😕 I don’t recall hearing _electrocute_ ever being used for anything other than a lethal electric shock. 16300 ghits for “electrocuted myself”… ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2015, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-words-that-have-come-to-mean-the-exact-opposite-of-their-original-meaning/544624/167 "2015-03-23T17:38:21Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Cleave. It’s actually a weird one because it means both to split apart and stick together. The two verbs, cleave, cleft, cloven and cleave, cleaved, cleaved did not result from a change of meaning but from two entirely different verbs with distinct origins coming to be pronounced and spelled the same. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2015, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-words-that-have-come-to-mean-the-exact-opposite-of-their-original-meaning/544624/168 "2015-03-23T23:14:19Z")
> [@Mops](#): > > 16300 ghits for “electrocuted myself”… […I got better.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzYO0joolR0)😃 ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-words-that-have-come-to-mean-the-exact-opposite-of-their-original-meaning/544624/169 "2015-03-24T00:39:57Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > “Electrocute” probably counts. Officially, the word means someone was _killed_ by an electric shock. But nowadays it’s frequently used as meaning any kind of electric shock, including a very mild one. Not only that, the original meaning was specifically applied to the death penalty. It’s a portmanteau word formed from electric + execute. Now, widely used for any application of electric shock, deliberate or accidental. Even inanimate objects can be electrocuted. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-words-that-have-come-to-mean-the-exact-opposite-of-their-original-meaning/544624/170 "2015-03-24T00:47:46Z")
> [@Canadjun](#): > > 😕 I don’t recall hearing _electrocute_ ever being used for anything other than a lethal electric shock. It’s pretty common, in my experience. About a month and a half ago, my dog and I nearly got electrocuted ourselves while walking out in the snow. I used the form “nearly got electrocuted” when relaying the story (just to be precise, and because I am aware of the distinction, even though my instinct is just use “electrocute” for the event), but whenever the incident was relayed back to be, it was in the form “I heard you got electrocuted a week/sometime ago. What happened?” ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-words-that-have-come-to-mean-the-exact-opposite-of-their-original-meaning/544624/171 "2015-03-24T00:59:27Z")
“In general” means “mostly, but with exceptions” or “without exception” depending on the context. “In general, men are taller than women,” means that men are mostly taller, but not in an absolute way–any specific pairing might go either way. “In general, a+b equals b+a” means that the statement is true regardless of the values of a and b, and possibly independent of the number system we’re working with. It’s true for _all_ cases. I’m not sure which usage came first… ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-words-that-have-come-to-mean-the-exact-opposite-of-their-original-meaning/544624/172 "2015-03-24T01:19:11Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Thre’s always flammable / inflammable. > > The linguistically correct term for something which catches fire easily is inflammable. But too many Troo Bloo 'Merkins though that meant non-catch-on-fire-able, which is of course opposite to the real meaning. > > So the nice safety folks invented the bastard word flammable to mean the same as what inflammable really means and the opposite of what the general foolish populace thinks inflammable means. Whoever transformed the original “inflammable” no doubt thought that it was an invaluable contribution to language. As a side note, fuel tanker trucks in eastern Canada will often display both words. As endearing as it might be to think that this is because Canadians are so literate that even fuel tanker markings exhibit dictionary-like precision, it’s actually a practice that originates in the province of Quebec and is simply bilingualism. Had the English not been bastardized, the single word “inflammable” would have sufficed as it’s the same word in both English and French, and had history left well enough alone, Quebec sign painters could have had an extra day off now and then. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-words-that-have-come-to-mean-the-exact-opposite-of-their-original-meaning/544624/173 "2015-03-24T01:31:20Z")
> [@Canadjun](#): > > 😕 I don’t recall hearing _electrocute_ ever being used for anything other than a lethal electric shock. I agree. For lesser shocks, I’d use “shock.” And then there’s the usually positive word “yeah”: “Yeah, yeah” . . . in the sense of “yeah, right” . . . in the sense of “no way” . . . in the sense of “not at all.” ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-words-that-have-come-to-mean-the-exact-opposite-of-their-original-meaning/544624/174 "2015-03-24T01:55:45Z")
I’d interpret “yeah, right” and “yeah, yeah” as having significantly different meanings. “yeah, right” = the thing you have just said is self-evidently absurd, I don’t believe you, and I despise you for saying it. “yeah, yeah” = the thing you just said is obvious, there was no need to say it, you are annoying me by saying it, please stop speaking now. ---
**Author:** ![Grotonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c2a13f/32.png) [@Grotonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grotonian)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-words-that-have-come-to-mean-the-exact-opposite-of-their-original-meaning/544624/175 "2015-03-24T15:36:51Z")
Did anyone note “bitch” and “bitch” yet? It can mean either bossy and dominant, or meek and submissive. “He can’t come out with us; his wife’s a total bitch. And he’s too much of a bitch to stand up to her.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-words-that-have-come-to-mean-the-exact-opposite-of-their-original-meaning/544624.md?page=8)