# 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:** 16\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/101 "2016-08-19T23:32:27Z")
Pit: A hole in the ground The stone found in a fruit To strive one against another ---
**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 20, 2016, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/102 "2016-08-20T12:15:51Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Actually this is a winner if you substitute “card game” with one of “Gin”'s other definitions. > > “Gin” in the sense of a machine, like a cotton gin, is an abbreviation of the word “engine.” > > “Gin” in the sense of the drink is from the Dutch for “juniper,” from which it is made. This is also the origin of the name of the card game, though. > > “Gin” in the sense of “to excite or enliven” comes from ginger, which is one goes far back enough is derived from very old words for “Root.” > > All three came to be “gin” from totally different etymologies. If we can accept Scots words, then “Gin” (pronounced with a hard “G”}, also means “if”. Some may be familiar with the beautiful traditional Scottish song “O, Gin I Were a Baron’s Heir” . ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/103 "2016-08-20T19:33:12Z")
Are the various meanings of right from different sources? 1. A direction 2. Politically conservative 3. Freedom to do something- Right to vote 4. A type of whale 5. Correct ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/104 "2016-08-20T19:38:16Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > Are the various meanings of right from different sources? > > 1. A direction > 2. Politically conservative > 3. Freedom to do something- Right to vote > 4. A type of whale > 5. Correct To be nitpicky-annoying: I gather that (4) might be reckoned a subset of (5). The old-time whalers called the “right whale” by that name, because it was easier to catch and process, than other whale species – thus, it was the correct / most advisable kind of whale to pursue. ---
**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 20, 2016, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/105 "2016-08-20T20:11:24Z")
> [@Bones\_Daley](#): > > Uhhh … that sign, which proclaims the “Metallic Lathers Union”, has nothing whatsoever to do with lathe operators. It has everything to do with the men who install metal LATH. > > LATH / LATHE … two totally different and unrelated words. > > LATH (rhymes with “path”) refers to the reinforcing substrate , which can be of wood or metal, onto which plaster or cement is applied. The person who install the lath is called a “lather” , which is pronounced with the “th” sounding the same as the “th” in “path”, rather than the “th” in the foamy shaving cream. > > A LATHE (rhymes with “faith” ) is a machine which can be used to produce round workpieces, and the person who operates it is called a turner. > > I trust all is now clear. Not even a :smack: from me, but a :eek: because a small intellectual but a major experiential supposition of mine for thirty years has been overturned a :rolleyes: and a little :mad: at myself for repeating that memory of small intellectual supposition and my humorous and wise correction of it all that time. ---
**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 20, 2016, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/106 "2016-08-20T20:16:31Z")
ETA: Jesus, now I learn I’ve been pronouncing “lathe” wrong my entire life (“th” like in “this”). ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2016, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/107 "2016-08-20T21:09:56Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > ETA: Jesus, now I learn I’ve been pronouncing “lathe” wrong my entire life (“th” like in “this”). For what it’s worth – for my whole life, I’ve been pronouncing it the same. In the UK where I live, I’ve always heard the word pronounced with “th” as in “this” – never, ever, to rhyme with “faith”. ---
**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 20, 2016, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/108 "2016-08-20T21:13:24Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > ETA: Jesus, now I learn I’ve been pronouncing “lathe” wrong my entire life (“th” like in “this”). Easy there, Leo … I don’t think you have in fact been pronouncing it wrong … my comparison with “faith” was more to indicate the vowel sound. The “th” is in fact pronounced like the “th” in “this”. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2016, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/109 "2016-08-22T14:47:18Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > Are the various meanings of right from different sources? > > 1. A direction > 2. Politically conservative > 3. Freedom to do something- Right to vote > 4. A type of whale > 5. Correct The political sense of left and right came from the hand/direction sense – in IIRC a 18th century French political assembly, the conservatives sat on the physically right-hand side of the room. And, apparently, the right hand was called that because it was the correct one, and the Bill of Rights sense of right also came from the root meaning more or less ‘correct’. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2016, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/110 "2016-08-22T15:00:38Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > A stake or pole embedded in your earlobe is not a distinct meaning from one embedded in the ground. And I suspect that the “assigned station” and “contribution to a message board” meanings are also related, the first via the hitching post and the second via the pins used to attach them to the cork. I suspect that the meaning of a ‘post’ on the SDMB comes from ‘to post’ as in to make publicly known (particularly with a sign), which comes from the idea of putting up a sign on a pole or post in the ground. However, it looks like military ‘post’ (which gives both hitching post and all the mail-related meanings) actually has a completely different derivation. So two unrelated meanings there. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2016, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/111 "2016-08-22T15:14:59Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > I suspect that the meaning of a ‘post’ on the SDMB comes from ‘to post’ as in to make publicly known (particularly with a sign), which comes from the idea of putting up a sign on a pole or post in the ground. > > However, it looks like military ‘post’ (which gives both hitching post and all the mail-related meanings) actually has a completely different derivation. So two unrelated meanings there. How about the meaning of “post” as “subsequent”? “American poetry post the 1950s hasn’t had the same impact” ---
**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 22, 2016, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/112 "2016-08-22T23:32:55Z")
> [@Bones\_Daley](#): > > Easy there, Leo … I don’t think you have in fact been pronouncing it wrong … my comparison with “faith” was more to indicate the vowel sound. The “th” is in fact pronounced like the “th” in “this”. Well, thank God for small favors. I actually have had good relations with all my English teachers, and none have been either of my parents, who as far as I know didn’t make me neurotic (about language, at least). So that can’t be the reason I’m so gobsmacked about “lather.” And, as a friendly get-along American, it behoved me to use the unnatural word “gobsmacked.” ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/113 "2016-08-23T12:34:50Z")
As an aside, on Sunday my church sang [a hymn](http://www.hymnary.org/text/lord_of_all_hopefulness_lord_of_all_joy) which actually does place “lathe” as being a rhyme for “faith”. Kind of funny, seeing it there in the book, when we’d just been discussing it here. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/114 "2016-08-23T13:28:26Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > How about the meaning of “post” as “subsequent”? > > “American poetry post the 1950s hasn’t had the same impact” Ooh, on-line sources seem to say that’s direct from Latin (‘post’=‘after’), so I think that’s a third unrelated meaning. We may have a winner! ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/115 "2016-08-23T19:29:40Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > We may have a winner! We’ve already had several “winners”, although you have to pick them out from all the non-winners, which means looking up etymologies. One is **tick** , which as I posted above, has 4 unrelated meanings. So the real winner should be the word with the most unrelated meanings. And by unrelated, I mean etymologically unrelated. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825/116 "2016-08-23T21:29:23Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Pit: > A hole in the ground > The stone found in a fruit > To strive one against another I hope I keep doing this because I think it’s interesting the way word meanings evolve, and not just because I enjoy crushing people’s dreams, but to ‘pit’ one creature against another comes from a cock-fighting ‘pit’ or other hole where you throw in two animals to fight against each other. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-with-three-or-more-completely-unrelated-meanings/605825.md?page=5)