Unthaw

[Jonathan Lighter]

They need a name that intro to linguistics students can memorize.

Allow me to suggest "ipsonyms."  Or is that taken?

JL

Dennis Baron <debaron at UIUC.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Dennis Baron
Subject: Re: Unthaw
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thaw/unthaw is just one of several words that mean their own opposites
(sounds like a talk show topic, like planets that eat their own moons.
Tomorrow, on Oprah, words that mean their own opposites).

These are common enough -- altho there is no technical term for them:

ravel/unravel (knitting up the raveled sleeve of care)
literally/figuratively (she was literally climbing the walls--literally
is seldom used literally, whereas figuratively is always used
literally; go figure)
unloosen/loosen
bone/debone
and of course cleave (which means both cling to and separate, though it
is really two different words that have become identical)

Dennis (that's me, and so far as I know that's all it means, tho
sometimes it means Dennis Preston)





Dennis Baron office: 217-244-0568
Professor of English and Linguistics mobile: 217-840-0776
Department of English fax: 217-333-4321
University of Illinois https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/debaron/www
608 S. Wright St.
Urbana, IL 61801
debaron at uiuc.ed

---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail - Helps protect you from nasty viruses.