Off topic: Single-letter antonymy Thread poster: Oliver Walter
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Oliver Walter 
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:04
German to English
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I occasionally notice, in English, words that can be converted into an antonym (word with the opposite meaning) by replacing just one letter. Two examples that I can think of just now are:
underline - undermine
prescribe - proscribe
I know these may not be the exact formal antonym pairs, but they're fairly close.
Can you suggest any more?
Oliver
| | | | Phil Hand
China
Local time: 22:04
Chinese to English
| Close but no cigar | Oct 15, 2012 |
Best I can come up with:
hot/not
for a cockney: 'ead/end
sounds the same, spelled different: peel/seal
Oh, got one!
fun/nun
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innervate / enervate - exact antonyms
| | | | Oliver Walter
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:04
German to English
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TOPIC STARTER
Anton Konashenok wrote:
innervate / enervate - exact antonyms Yes, but they're not even the same length - one is 9 letters long and the other is 8. When I wrote "by replacing just one letter", that's what I meant - I'm looking for words, both of which are n letters long and differ by having a different letter in one of those n positions.
Oliver
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| | Oliver Walter
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:04
German to English
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TOPIC STARTER | Yes - but I wonder... | Oct 17, 2012 |
Amel Abdullah wrote:
Here's one:
fat/fit Yes, I think that's probably valid. However, I wonder whether there will now be lots of reply posts from ProZians who claim to be both fat and fit!
Oliver
| | | | Oliver Walter
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:04
German to English
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TOPIC STARTER
Three more that I have noticed in the past few days:
now and not (as in: I have now done it vs. I have not done it)
hired and fired (antonyms by definition)
collude and collide (approximately opposite meanings)
Oliver
| | | | Phil Hand
China
Local time: 22:04
Chinese to English
| lover / loner | Nov 22, 2012 |
sent / pent
mend / bend (or rend)
fend / tend (fend off or tend to... I know, it's a bit tenuous)
rend / mend
oh, here's a good one: lover / loner
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Oliver Walter
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:04
German to English
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TOPIC STARTER | Two more pairs | Jan 3, 2013 |
I've noticed these in the past few days:
wild vs. mild
strike vs. strive
("strike" in the sense of "protest by refusing to work". I suppose they might be synonyms if "strike" means "strive to influence the employer"!)
Oliver
| | | | Paul Dixon
Brazil
Local time: 11:04
Portuguese to English
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| In Portuguese | Jan 3, 2013 |
Some I can think of Portuguese:
ratificar (to confirm)
retificar (to correct or alter)
imigrar (to immigrate)
emigrar (to emigrate)
prescrito (recommended)
proscrito (outlawed)
I hope this helps.
| | | | JH Trads
United States
Local time: 10:04
Member (2007)
English to French
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| eureka! one more | Jan 8, 2013 |
comely/homely
| | | | | Works apparently in North America | Jan 8, 2013 |
Hugo wrote:
comely/homely
It just shows how careful you have to be about shades of meaning. It is the sort of thing I sometimes find between Scandinavian languages, which also have the same words used for different concepts. They have the same roots, but meanings have shifted in opposite directions.
Being British, I would regard comely and homely as quite close in meaning, not as opposites!
Comely - definitely good looking, attractive and perhaps striking, probably more outward-looking than homely. But for me the archaic tone of the word keeps it somehow on the village street and not too far out in the wide world.
Homely - cosy, comforting, pleasant, welcoming, like a beloved grandmother and good home-cooked food... Adding the homely touch to frozen meals and fast food is sometimes a selling point!
My dictionary tells me that this is not the way our cousins over the pond would understand it.
I believe they use the word 'homey' for that sense.
_____________________________
Well, my ancestors (perhaps) stayed contentedly 'at home', and my own family referred with longing to England as 'home' when they did live abroad.
At least some of the Americans' ancestors suffered religious persecution or poverty and starvation 'back home', and made themselves a new life in the New World. So 'homely' came to have a very different meaning.
There is food for thought in this thread - thanks, everyone!
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JH Trads
United States
Local time: 10:04
Member (2007)
English to French
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| Absolutely, Christine, | Jan 8, 2013 |
thanks for your interesting thoughts.
'Homely/comely' works in the US and Canada, as 'homely' does include the meaning of 'ugly', 'unattractive'.
Eureka!
Cheers!
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Reminds me of the Two Ronnies sketch "Learning Swedish". (Found on YouTube).
It's far from anything like Swedish, but is a wonderful example of Single-letter language.
Note the Z must be UK pronunciation.
U. Z. U. F. X.
| | | | Nicole Schnell
United States
Local time: 07:04
English to German
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In memoriam | In proper context... | Feb 20, 2013 |
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