FW: Same sound, opposite meaning

[Robert Fitzke]

One that is often used by sportswriters is "verbal". It means both written
and oral. It is often used to describe a recruit's commitment where the
difference between a written commitment and an oral commitment is critical.

Bob
----- Original Message -----
From: Frank Abate <abatefr at earthlink.net>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, May 08, 2002 12:51 PM
Subject: FW: Same sound, opposite meaning


> In reply to Erin M's posting, Lynne M commented:
>
> --On Wednesday, May 8, 2002 8:57 am -0500 Erin McKean
> <editor at VERBATIMMAG.COM> wrote:
>
> > There's an article in the most recent VERBATIM about these things,
> > also called "janus words."
> >
> > Erin McKean
> > editor at verbatimmag.com
> >
> >> Is there an official term for homophonic words that have the opposite
(or
> >> nearly the opposite) meanings? For example: raise and raze.
>
> But 'raise' and 'raze' aren't Janus words in the usual sense, since
they're
> not spelt the same.
>
> ************************
>
> A classic example is "cleave": 'to cut something into separate pieces' and
> 'to cling to tightly'.  Similar is "hew" 'cut' and "hew to" 'adhere to'.
>
> Frank Abate
>