# You know what a word means, yet your mind leaps to its opposite. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 7, 2011, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-a-word-means-yet-your-mind-leaps-to-its-opposite/566721 "2011-01-07T06:19:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Flipshod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f19dbf/32.png) [@Flipshod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flipshod)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-a-word-means-yet-your-mind-leaps-to-its-opposite/566721/21 "2011-01-08T09:09:46Z")
My favorite contranym: In court to “continue” something means to stop doing it and take it up later. ---
**Author:** ![legalsnugs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@legalsnugs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/legalsnugs)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-a-word-means-yet-your-mind-leaps-to-its-opposite/566721/22 "2011-01-08T14:58:53Z")
Firmament. It just sounds too heavy to be the sky. ---
**Author:** ![Grasshopper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f19dbf/32.png) [@Grasshopper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grasshopper)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-a-word-means-yet-your-mind-leaps-to-its-opposite/566721/23 "2011-01-08T15:13:35Z")
Hasty sounds like pasty. It should mean slow. ---
**Author:** ![xoferew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/e9a140/32.png) [@xoferew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xoferew)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-a-word-means-yet-your-mind-leaps-to-its-opposite/566721/24 "2011-01-08T16:19:34Z")
Prude. Meretricious. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-a-word-means-yet-your-mind-leaps-to-its-opposite/566721/25 "2011-01-09T05:56:22Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > For me, this happens with the word “levity.” I totally understand what the word means, yet every time I hear it, I think of something heavy and ponderous and serious . . . exactly the opposite of its actual meaning. It takes me a few seconds to remind myself of the word’s actual meaning. > > Does this happen to you? Yes!.. I mean no. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-a-word-means-yet-your-mind-leaps-to-its-opposite/566721/26 "2011-01-09T06:19:15Z")
For me that word is “flurry” as in snow flurries. It sounds like it should be a lot of snow but it means very little snow. Maybe because the word is so close to “fury”? I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![PeskiPiksi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e495f1/32.png) [@PeskiPiksi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PeskiPiksi)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-a-word-means-yet-your-mind-leaps-to-its-opposite/566721/27 "2011-01-09T06:21:44Z")
Akimbo. I know if you’re standing arms akimbo, that means you’ve got your hands on your hips, your elbows out. But in my mind, it means your arms are flailing about. ---
**Author:** ![Breccia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Breccia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Breccia)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-a-word-means-yet-your-mind-leaps-to-its-opposite/566721/28 "2011-01-09T06:33:17Z")
Restive I put rest in restive, instead of restless. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-a-word-means-yet-your-mind-leaps-to-its-opposite/566721/29 "2011-01-09T07:20:31Z")
> [@Elysian](#): > > “Chartreuse”. It’s supposed to mean a deep blushing red, damnit. And it has something to do with a lady singing . . . right? ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-a-word-means-yet-your-mind-leaps-to-its-opposite/566721/30 "2011-01-09T16:11:19Z")
Whenever I used the word bemused used properly I end up, well, bemused, because long ago I learned the incorrect definition for the word and I can’t unlearn it. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2011, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-a-word-means-yet-your-mind-leaps-to-its-opposite/566721/31 "2011-01-09T17:55:52Z")
> [@Rysto](#): > > Whenever I used the word bemused used properly I end up, well, bemused, because long ago I learned the incorrect definition for the word and I can’t unlearn it. That reminds me that for years I confused Atheist and Agnostic because I originally learned their definitions switched around. ---
**Author:** ![Renton\_lvr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7feea3/32.png) [@Renton\_lvr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renton_lvr)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-a-word-means-yet-your-mind-leaps-to-its-opposite/566721/32 "2011-01-10T00:34:32Z")
“Slept fitfully”. My first thought is always of the opposite. ---
**Author:** ![bluecanary](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bluecanary/32/3614_2.png) [@bluecanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluecanary)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-a-word-means-yet-your-mind-leaps-to-its-opposite/566721/33 "2011-01-10T01:16:35Z")
Whenever I see the word “vexed” I think it means to be confused or baffled by something, when actually it means to be angered by something. Maybe I’m subconsciously confusing ‘vexed’ and ‘perplexed’? ---
**Author:** ![xoferew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/e9a140/32.png) [@xoferew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xoferew)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-a-word-means-yet-your-mind-leaps-to-its-opposite/566721/34 "2011-01-10T01:51:22Z")
Oh, I know! When I was a kid in church every week they sang that God “recalls his promises” and I knew what they meant, but I kept thinking of it like in a product recall – taking it back because it was defective. ---
**Author:** ![wayward](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a87d85/32.png) [@wayward](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wayward)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-a-word-means-yet-your-mind-leaps-to-its-opposite/566721/35 "2011-01-10T10:12:04Z")
“Salubrious” apparently means wholesome or health-giving, but it always sounds skeevy and skanky to me. I only know the word because of a street in the town where I used to live called Salubrious Passage. Frankly it sounds like it should be the place where all the hookers hang out. ---
**Author:** ![xoferew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/e9a140/32.png) [@xoferew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xoferew)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-a-word-means-yet-your-mind-leaps-to-its-opposite/566721/36 "2011-01-10T10:54:22Z")
> [@wayward](#): > > “Salubrious” apparently means wholesome or health-giving, but it always sounds skeevy and skanky to me. > > I only know the word because of a street in the town where I used to live called Salubrious Passage. Frankly it sounds like it should be the place where all the hookers hang out. “I’ve got this terrible itch in my Salubrious Passage, doctor!” ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-a-word-means-yet-your-mind-leaps-to-its-opposite/566721/37 "2011-01-10T12:43:29Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > It does. Wait, I will look it up for a cite. > > …Well you learn something new every day. Yellow/Green Huh? That the dumbest thing I have heard today. You people obviously don’t know your high-end liqueurs. 😉 (And, in actuality, Chartreuse comes in two different colors: one yellow, and one green.) There’s enough friggin words for shades of red, we don’t need another one. ---
**Author:** ![iamnotbatman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/858c86/32.png) [@iamnotbatman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamnotbatman)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-a-word-means-yet-your-mind-leaps-to-its-opposite/566721/38 "2011-01-10T12:50:58Z")
Spendthrift Privation ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-a-word-means-yet-your-mind-leaps-to-its-opposite/566721/39 "2011-01-10T16:13:06Z")
Dearth and boon. I always want dearth to mean “too many,” and boon always feels like it should mean “burden.” ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-a-word-means-yet-your-mind-leaps-to-its-opposite/566721/40 "2011-01-10T16:20:45Z")
Befriend. It sounds like it’s the opposite of friend (befriend=defriend) and is too similar to betray. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-a-word-means-yet-your-mind-leaps-to-its-opposite/566721.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-what-a-word-means-yet-your-mind-leaps-to-its-opposite/566721.md?page=3)