# English words with three or more completely unrelated meanings **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 11, 2011, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825 "2011-12-11T15:00:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2016, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/61 "2016-08-15T10:22:38Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > For the OP, one that almost qualifies is “bit”. I don’t _think_ that “past tense of bite” and “a small piece” are related to each other… As hibernicus surmised (five years ago), they are in fact related. Both senses come from a Proto-Indo-European word meaning “to split,” which morphed into a Germanic word meaning “a small piece; a bite (of something).” John Ciardi, in _A Second Browser’s Dictionary_, contends that the “small piece” meaning came first, then was applied to the act of creating a small piece with one’s teeth; but the the Online Etymological Dictionary seems to keep open the possibility that the verb goes back earlier. ---
**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:** [August 15, 2016, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/62 "2016-08-15T11:51:13Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I’m pretty sure rifle bolts are called that because [their mechanism](https://4b1e874935ea5d25a97e-f099844d0e354c7ab50c55a966be6870.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/product/f11903r1.jpg) is _just_ like[the door mechanism](http://3.imimg.com/data3/XS/DS/MY-8642066/brass-door-bolt-250x250.png). Yeah, most of the various meanings of \*\*bolt \*\*are related. The original sense was a crossbow bolt. From there it evolved to mean rods of various types, including a door bolt, nut and bolt, and breech bolt. A lightning bolt is like an arrow from the sky, and when a horse bolts it starts suddenly and moves quickly like an arrow. Even a rolled up bit of cloth looks like a rod. > **[bolt | Etymology of bolt by etymonline](https://www.etymonline.com/word/bolt)** > > "short, stout arrow with a heavy head;" also "crossbow for throwing bolts," from… See origin and meaning of bolt. > **[thunderbolt | Etymology of thunderbolt by etymonline](https://www.etymonline.com/word/thunderbolt)** > > "flash of lightning with the accompanying crash of thunder," mid-15c., from thunder (n.)… See origin and meaning of thunderbolt. I don’t know if passing through a sieve is related. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2016, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/63 "2016-08-15T12:27:36Z")
I also enjoy [clicking on the online etymological dictionary](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=band). For example, from OP: > [@Hyperelastic](#): > > The word “band” has at least three distinct meanings: > > 1. A group of people engaged in a cooperative pursuit, such as a musical group or a band of thieves. > 2. A strap or belt intended to carry a tension load > 3. A frequency interval _All three_ of these meanings, along with such English words as bandage, bend, bind and bond, derive from Proto-Germanic \*_bindan_, from PIE \*_bendh_- “to bind”. (Some entered English via Old Norse, some via Old English, some via Old French or Middle French, but they all derive ultimately from _bindan_.) ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2016, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/64 "2016-08-15T13:14:39Z")
Only one of these is an English non-proper noun, but still, it’s six letters long! Batman: – Servant, chiefly to a British military officer, from “bat” from the French for “packsaddle” – Fictional character resembling a bat, from the Norse for “nightflapper” – A Turkish unit of weight. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2016, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/65 "2016-08-15T13:18:32Z")
**dog:** [ol] [li]canine[/li][li]latch or lock on a ship’s hatch[/li][li]to persistently follow someone[/li]li to put in a weak effort at something[/li][li]sausage[/li][/ol] And twenty or so others, as James Thurber once pointed out. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2016, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/66 "2016-08-15T14:42:56Z")
Lather 1. The fine, soapy foam used for shaving your face. 2. The operator of a lathe. 3. One who installs laths. [https://swanbarnfarm.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/the-laths.jpg](https://swanbarnfarm.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/the-laths.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/67 "2016-08-16T02:06:58Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Only one of these is an English non-proper noun, but still, it’s six letters long! > > Batman: > – Servant, chiefly to a British military officer, from “bat” from the French for “packsaddle” > – Fictional character resembling a bat, from the Norse for “nightflapper” > – A Turkish unit of weight. –[the city in Turkey](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman,_Turkey) (You probably knew that, but didn’t want to add another proper name). ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/68 "2016-08-16T07:25:32Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Only one of these is an English non-proper noun, but still, it’s six letters long! > > Batman: > – Servant, chiefly to a British military officer, from “bat” from the French for “packsaddle” > – Fictional character resembling a bat, from the Norse for “nightflapper” > – A Turkish unit of weight. > [@JKellyMap](#): > > –[the city in Turkey](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman,_Turkey) > > (You probably knew that, but didn’t want to add another proper name). There’s also a district of Melbourne, Australia, called Batman – after John Batman, generally regarded as Melbourne’s founder. www.abc.net.au/news/federal-election-2016/guide/batm ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/69 "2016-08-16T07:37:01Z")
One which I like, is “shag”: has fewer meanings than a fair number of words in this thread – but I find the sheer variety, impressive. 1. a bird, of the cormorant family 2. a carpet or rug with deep pile 3. a dance 4. a kind of coarse tobacco 5. – noun and verb – vulgar synonym for copulation 6. verb: hang down in a shaggy manner 7. verb (colloquial) to depart, or wander around Plus, at my school (in England), “shag” also meant – noun / verb – idleness / shirking, or being in a state thereof: a document excusing one from sport / physical training because of being unwell, was called a “shag slip”; but I’ve never come across this use of the word elsewhere – maybe peculiar to that school. ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/70 "2016-08-16T09:24:52Z")
I remember reading a book by Gerald Durrell (How to Shoot an Amateur Naturalist), where he mentioned that the word “shoot” has many meanings, including: - To use a gun or crossbow, or other projectile weapon - To move forward rapidly and suddenly (obviously related to the above, though) - To score a point in various games - A plant stem - To make a movie - Direct a glance or question at someone - A rapid in a stream ---
**Author:** ![GrizzRich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7ba0ec/32.png) [@GrizzRich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrizzRich)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/71 "2016-08-16T15:55:32Z")
My sixth-grade teacher used to assign a punishment that was akin to writing a specific sentence a great number of times. Her version was to copy the dictionary’s several definitions of the word “RUN”. ---
**Author:** ![Bones\_Daley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@Bones\_Daley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bones_Daley)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2016, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/72 "2016-08-17T20:22:04Z")
> [@Enola\_Straight](#): > > Lather > > 1. The fine, soapy foam used for shaving your face. > 2. The operator of a lathe. > 3. One who installs laths. > [Speckled Wood: Image](https://swanbarnfarm.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/the-laths.jpg) 1 and 3 are fine, but nobody has ever, anywhere, referred to a lathe operator as a lather. Or rather, if anybody has, they were using their own made-up word, and were unaware that a lathe operator is universally referred to as a turner. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/73 "2016-08-18T01:26:39Z")
:eek::mad:☹ ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/74 "2016-08-18T01:49:45Z")
Racket A tennis implement Something noisy An extortion scheme Google gives the latter two as part of the same definition, but has no real etymology for either of them, so I’m going to declare that they are unrelated. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/75 "2016-08-18T02:03:44Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > **Lay** is, erm, a fertile field for this: Past tense of _lie_ in the “to recline” meaning; to place; to seduce successfully; girl evaluated on her sexual performance (whaddaya mean, chauvinist? :dubious: ); long probably-narrative poem… I know this is years later, but you missed one: “not ordained”. I also think lie and lay come from the same root if you go back enough, making all of those but the last really from the same root. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/76 "2016-08-18T04:14:21Z")
Fire: 1. A physical phenomenon which generates heat through the combustion of matter. 2. To remove somebody from their job. 3. To set off a gun. ---
**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:** [August 18, 2016, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/77 "2016-08-18T07:27:19Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Fire: > > 1. A physical phenomenon which generates heat through the combustion of matter. > 2. To remove somebody from their job. > 3. To set off a gun. No 1 and 3 are certainly connected meanings. No 2 probably is connected. ---
**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:** [August 18, 2016, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/78 "2016-08-18T08:55:07Z")
> [@Enola\_Straight](#): > > Lather > > 1. The fine, soapy foam used for shaving your face. > 2. The operator of a lathe. > 3. One who installs laths. > [Speckled Wood: Image](https://swanbarnfarm.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/the-laths.jpg) For example, [http://www.placematters.net/sites/default/files/places/PM\_node\_1323\_1.jpg](http://www.placematters.net/sites/default/files/places/PM_node_1323_1.jpg). I lived across the street from this building, and for _years_ mentally pronounced it as shaving cream as I passed it going to work. > [@Bones\_Daley](#): > > 1 and 3 are fine, but nobody has ever, anywhere, referred to a lathe operator as a lather. > > Or rather, if anybody has, they were using their own made-up word, and were unaware that a lathe operator is universally referred to as a turner. See above photo. Self-identified for collective identification to the whole world. Although established in 1897, so perhaps it remains a la Colored People, who also have a national association. It really bothered me. That and “sundried tomatoes,” which obnoxiously has no hyphen, and again, for years mentally pronounced the way it looks. To me. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/79 "2016-08-18T23:00:07Z")
Peer to look at someone of equal rank someone who pees Ok, that last one is a bit of a stretch, but I think it’s a valid formation. ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/80 "2016-08-19T00:41:23Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > [Rack has good number of distinct etymologies](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rack): > > 1. Framework of bars - from Middle Dutch _rac, rec, recke_ > 2. Ruin or destruction; wrack - from Middle English _wrak_ > 3. A horse’s gait - origin unknown, possible from _rock_, or from French _racquassure_ > 4. A group of drifting clouds, from Middle English _rak, reck(e)_; also possibly from Old English _racu_, “cloud” > 5. To draw off from the lees (like in beermaking or winemaking), from Old French, compare to _raqué_ > 6. The neck portion of mutton, goat, or veal - origin unknown Rack has two more meanings, although I do not know the etymologies. 7. A cabinet for computer network hardware. 8. To accumulate. As in, racking up bills. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825.md?page=5)