lexical query

[ronbutters at AOL.COM]

I can think of a word ("ambivalence" ) that seems to work the way that Arnold is looking for, but that's the only noun (cf. also the adjectives "checkered") and it doesn't mean exactly what he seems to be looking for.
------Original Message------
From: Arnold M. Zwicky
Sender: American Dialect Society
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
ReplyTo: American Dialect Society
Sent: Sep 3, 2007 6:45 PM
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] lexical query

On Sep 3, 2007, at 1:17 PM, John M. Spartz wrote:

> It might be too far afield, but how about "pharmakon" from Plato's
> Phaedrus (he
> refers to writing as a pharmakon), as discussed in Derrida's
> Plato's Pharmacy to
> mean both "remedy" and "poison"...?

again, not a general term for the phenomenon, but a (possible)
specific example of it.

arnold

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