Does “deliberate” qualify? As in “to consider slowly and carefully” and “to reach a conclusion quickly and intentionally”?
I think “deliberate” is just the opposite of “liberate”. Like, if you are a free man, you are at liberty. If you get thrown in jail, you are getting deliberated. When they let you out, you are getting liberated. Or reliberated.
Poor, poor “semiweekly”. No one ever remembers him… Perfectly cromulent word, but he sits in the dust in the back of the word shed. Sigh.
I’ve thought of one that is sometimes its own opposite: romance. Now, the majority of the time people use it in accordance with its roots: anything involving passion can be romantic (be it passion for the outdoors, passion for one’s country, passion for an idea, or passion for a person). Now, passion can be destructive as well as edifying, so it is not surprising that the results of these types of romantic things can seem to have opposite effects.
However, sometimes when people refer to something being “romantic”, they mean little refined displays of love that if anything tamper any underlying passion. And if you describe someone as a “romantic partner” you are more likely to be describing someone with whom you are past the initial throes of sexual passion and are in a steadier relationship.
Huh? Since when do people think you have to be Roman to engage in romance?
nervy
Dropped.
Can mean released: the new album just dropped.
Or it could mean canceled: Google just dropped just another product.
“Shelled” is similar to “barked” in that way. It can mean “having a shell”, or “having had its shell removed”. I have sometimes been confused by references to “shelled peanuts”.
In a similar vein, ‘fine’ can mean outstandingly good: “fine dining”
Or just barely ok: “How was school?” “Fine.”
Ha, thanks for the memories. I didn’t notice your post right away because as it turns out, quoting me from another older thread does not send me a notification, so I just happened to skim through this thread and notice it.