Words You Think Mean the Opposite

Only from an accounting perspective. From a consumer perspective (i.e. yours) they mean what you’d expect.

Didn’t I start a thread like this, not too long ago?

Anyway, my word is “levity.” I always think it means heavy and serious.

A thought about dearth. Maybe some people are thinking of the word plethora. They’re somewhat similar in the way they sound and have opposite meanings.

Pulchritude. Really doesn’t sound like it means beauty.

Yeah, ISTR that the sarcastic usage confused me as child.

Droll, I thought, must simply mean that it fails to be funny at all. Of course, Barney’s remarks were usually funny enough to get laughs (at least from the laugh machine ;)). But since they were usually at Fred’s expense, he dismissed them, just as if he had said:

FUHHH
neeee!

Coin.

Common usage is “to originate,” but to my mind it should mean “to make yet another copy.”

When I hear the months September, October, November, and December, I think of the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th months, respectively.

I wish I hadn’t tried to teach myself Latin in Elementary School.

Could be conflating sanguine with sangfroid.

Indeed. It sounds like something vile, foul and probably putrid. Well, to me it does.

Sanction and Sanguine.

I consider myself quite adept with the English language yet these two words always cause a secret unease.

Great thread.

Great?

What did you mean by that?! :wink:

Sanction has two almost opposite meanings, though - if you sanction something, you allow it, but if you impose sanctions on it, you restrict it.

It’s like “dusting” - dusting a cake with sugar means the exact opposite of dusting a table with a cloth.

Prologue. I always think it should be “prelogue” since it comes before the work. Thus I get it mixed up with an epilogue.

I’ve also been known to get homely and comely mixed up. In fact, I just had to look it up to be sure. Why can’t homely mean someone I would like to take home?

LOL got me. :smiley:

But you must admit, its a wonderful topic for discussion and I find it heartening to see other people have similar thoughts.

Maudlin is mine. I always read it and immediately think “gloomy” or “creepy”.

Yeah, it’s my favorite thread currently. Seriously.

[del]ETA: By “thread” I mean a series of posts in an online discussion, and not a line of fabr[/del]

OH, enough already, me!!!

Drives me batty.

But does it inflame you?

Commence/Commencement clearly means the end of something, right? Why else would you have a Commencement Ceremony and the end of high school/college?

Just think of comely as someone you want to make come.