Those who are fond of words and the etymological background of a word, many a time their curiosity leads them to work on the synonym and antonym of the word in context. But, how many times you bumped into something, which seems to have a mirror effect. What I meant to say, the same word that may indicate left and right or Strong or week both – does it sound strange or equivocal?
Welcome to the amazing world of CONTRONYM !!!!
A contronym is a word with a homonym that is also an antonym.
Am I making it more complicated ??
Let us take an example, LEFT is a contronym that means remained or departed. Another good example is bound which means heading to a destination or restrained from movement.
Many such interesting applications in English defy logic such as this one while - Jail & Prison are synonyms, but Jailer and Prisoner are antonyms.
Food for thought .. Huh? Keep deep diving, you will find diamonds in the core of every language.
As Jonathan Culver once quipped “The English language is a work in progress. Have fun with it”.
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