English words with three or more completely unrelated meanings

Factual Questions
41

Mr Punch, the puppet originated in Italian theatre Commedia Del Arte, where he is known as Punchinello or Pulcinella.

However, I’m not sure that a proper noun counts as a separate definition for a word.
I’d also guess that ‘punch’ the alcoholic drink is so called because it has a kick like a punch with the fist.

42

Here’s my contribution: SCORE

  1. a notch or incision (or the act of making one)
  2. a record or measurement of activity (sports scores, a score to settle, a test score)
  3. musical notation (or the act of making it)
  4. twenty
  5. (slang) to have sex (though I suppose we could see how this meaning comes from definitions 1 or 2)

Also worth noting that all definitions but 4 can be nouns and verbs.

43

I think the meanings of score are all connected.

Origin:
before 1100; (noun) Middle English; late Old English scora, score (plural; singular *scoru ) group of twenty (apparently orig. notch) < Old Norse skor notch; (v.) Middle English scoren to incise, mark with lines, tally debts < Old Norse skora to notch, count by tallies; later v. senses derivative of the noun; akin to shear

As I understand it, it comes from counting i9n groups of 20, and cutting a notch for each group. Thus you have three base meanings there:

  1. group of twenty
  2. cutting
  3. keeping count.

And lots of other meanings derived from them.

44

Polish:

  1. to shine up
  2. a country near to Germany
  3. Like a poll (or a Paul)
45

Actually, the words may be related, but not in the way that you guess. “Punch” comes from a word meaning “five” in Indian languages, the idea being that it is made with 5 ingredients. Compare: “Punjab”, meaning 5 rivers in Persian.

The origin of our number words is generally obscure, but it is speculated that the Indo-European word for “five” is related to that for “hand” or “fist”, the connection obviously being the 5 fingers on a human hand.

46

Hand:

What’s at the end of your arm
Assistance
Applause
A measurement of a horse’s height.

All right, so maybe they’re somewhat related…

47

Bank -

  • to tilt, as in to bank an aircraft
  • side of a river
  • place that stores and lends money

of course, the tilt is related to the river, as bank also mean the road or railroad was on a earthen bank tilted to handle fast turns.

48

Somewhat? You use what’s at the end of your arm to assistance, applaud, and to measure a horse’s height.

49

“Don’t waste your time on the branches small,”
Said the farmer to his son,
“But lay your axe at the root of the tree,
So your work is sooner done.”

Then, like a good and obedient boy,
Not a word back did he say,
But he laid his axe at the root of the tree,
And went off and fished all day.

– Newton Mackintosh, Precious Nonsense!, 1895

50

Uh, you forgot the best one.

51

I think that’s related to definition #1 or #6, though, so I didn’t count it as a separate etymology/completely different meaning.

52

Dis

  1. lady, woman, or fertility goddess in Norse mythology.

  2. to treat with contempt; to disrespect.

  3. plural of di, a musical tone in between do and re.

  4. plural of Di, a female given name.

  5. abbreviation for distance or distant.

  6. abbreviation for distribute.

  7. abbreviation for disease.

  8. abbreviation for disability.

I’m not counting the Roman god of the underworld as a definition. Nor the Disney channel trademark. Nor the prefix dis- since it isn’t a word in its own right.

53

Actually, now I’m wondering if the OP could clarify whether we’re looking for words that are homonyms (same spelling, same pronunciation, different meaning/etymology) or heteronyms (same spelling, different pronunciation, different meaning/etymology.)

54

I found 30 meanings for “jack”. While some may be related, there is a world of difference between car jack and apple jack.

55

Homonyms, but ones in which the meanings are reasonably distinct. By heteronym, I assume you mean something like entrance (a place where one may enter) or entrance (to exert a weird kind of influence over).

56

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…

Something I encountered by a fluke was, well, fluke:

  1. A trematode parasitic worm
  2. One lobe of the horizontal tail ‘fin’ of a whale or porpoise
  3. An improbable coincidence, one that could not be foreseen
57

Yes, or like the “dis” example before. A true homonym, by strict definition, has distinct meanings and distinct etymologies. A lot of the words mentioned here are strictly polysemes–words with the same pronunciation (and often same spelling), but with different, but related, meanings.

Actually, Wikipedia has a good run down of all the different terms:

58

Cleave.

  1. To adhere closely; stick; cling.
  2. To remain faithful.
  3. To split or divide by or as if by a cutting blow, especially along a natural line of division, as the grain of wood.
  4. To make by or as if by cutting.
  5. To penetrate or pass through (air, water, etc.).
  6. To cut off; sever.
  7. To part or split, especially along a natural line of division.
  8. To penetrate or advance by or as if by cutting.

Note that definition (1) is an antonymn for (3), (6), and (7).

59

The most impressive I’ve found is “bolt”

a bar that locks a door

a screw that attaches things

a part of a gun that isn’t obviously similar to either of those things

ammunition for a crossbow

a startled sprint

a lightning bolt

a bolt of cloth

to eat food quickly

for a plant to grow tall quickly

and, archaically, to pass something through a sieve

60

I’m pretty sure rifle bolts are called that because their mechanism is just likethe door mechanism.