I think it’s fine, the whole collection is built on technicalities. It’s more of a linguistic curiosity than a legitimate field of study.
I’m not sure what point your teacher was trying to make - „on the wall“ actually does translate to „an der Wand“. „An“ can also mean „by“, as in „next to“, but you’re absolutely right, prepositions hardly ever translate 100% directly.
As to your own point, the use of „um“ refers to slightly different things in my example (and as I’ve tried to indicate, they’re stressed differently, too): the um in „umFAHRen“ refers to my own action of driving „around“ something, whereas „UMfahren“ means that something is being knocked over. Not sure if that makes sense. Also, the two words are separated differently when I rearrange the sentence structure: the first is „Ich umfahre den Fußgänger.“, the second one is „Ich fahre den Fußgänger um.“ Very confusing…
The class was 20 years ago, so I may have some of the details wrong. She may have been referring to the case of something that was resting on the floor (or a shelf, or tabletop) and propped up against a wall. “Leaning on the wall” would be a common way to say that in English; not sure about the German.
And this is a bit of a hijack from the thread, so we can probably drop it here.
Wicked extremely unpleasent or excellent
Sanction to approve or to penalise
Bound To be tied down or to be going somewhere
This is an example of a word’s meaning being reversed as part of the developing argot of youth - I was also pondering these. There’s a whole class of them, going back generations. “Cool” - stand-offish or mellow is the earliest I can think of. “Sick” and “Bad” are another two. I’m sure there are many more.
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That’s not what it means in tennis though. If you’re thinking of a net ball first serve, it’s being used there as it gets used in tennis generally – it means to replay the point.
I’m not getting why it’s not a contronym. It means quickly, as in run fast, or securely so as to not move , as in “make fast.”
Moot: can be used for both “debatable” or “irrelevant”
It comes from ‘moot court,’ which is something akin to a mock trial or debate club. So a ‘moot point’ is something worthy of discussion or something only worth discussing hypothetically.
This one is largely a regional difference. In American English “moot” usually means irrelevant, while in British English it usually means debatable. But debatable and irrelevant are not really opposites.
Separated by a common language, indeed.
Cleave is actually two entirely different verbs with distinct etymologies and inflections that seem to have accidentally fallen together. Cleave, cleft, cleft means to separate, while cleave, clove, cloven means to come together.
As far as table is concerned, this is a difference between American and British usage, whether it means to put it on the table or take it off.
Peruse - to examine with attention and in detail
vs
Peruse - to look over in a casual or cursory manner.
Wasn’t there a previous thread? I know I have a whole list of such words written down somewhere…
nervy: having nerve, bold, brazen / jittery, nervous, anxious
Justice. If you carry a sign that says “Justice for OJ”, does it mean you support him or think he got off unfairly? Unclear.
There was indeed, I remember contributing the German Untiefe, literally not-depth, which can mean a depth so deep you cannot fathom it or a very shallow water, like a sand bank, where a ship is going to hit bottom.
I also remember that @EinsteinsHund wrote something about that too, but I forgot what it was.
I also can’t remember a former thread or posting about that word, but it’s definitely possible, because I misunderstood it for a big chunk of my life. I live deeply in the inland with the next coast 350 km away (so I’m not a Fischkopp as the coastal people are called here), so I always took “Untiefe” to mean an unfathomable deep in the ocean, like the Mariana Trench, where if you are shipwrecked you’re bound to drown because there can be no rescue. Turned out it means the opposite, an unusually and unexpected shallow stretch of water near a coast that is a danger for ships to run onto ground. Of course now I understand that this is a much bigger concern for ships.
But as @Pardel-Lux mentioned, my misconception wasn’t totally false because in other contexts, “Untiefe” really means unfathomable depth.
There is a legal term ‘let’ that means a prevention. Usually found in the phrase “without let or hindrance”.
For starters, there is the Words that are their own opposites thread. Maybe merge it with this one?
Maybe that’s what I was thinking of…
I was watching the news just now, and the on-screen text said “evangelical group drops new ad for Harris”. I thought “oh, that’s too bad, it might have done some good; they shouldn’t just drop it.”
Then I remembered what drop means now.
Likewise “cited”… could mean recognized for excellence, or given a parking ticket.