A Glimpse About Contronym

Contronym

Here’s an ambiguous sentence for you:

“Because of the agency’s oversight, the corporation’s behavior was sanctioned.” 

Does that mean, 'Because the agency oversaw the company’s behavior, they imposed a penalty for some transgression' or does it mean, 'Because the agency was inattentive, they overlooked the misbehavior and gave it their approval by default'?

We’ve stumbled into the looking-glass world of “contronyms”—words that are their own antonyms.

1. Sanction (via French, from Latin sanctio(n-), from sancire ‘ratify,’) can mean ‘give official permission or approval for (an action)’ or conversely, ‘impose a penalty on.’*

2. Oversight is the noun form of two verbs with contrary meanings, “oversee” and “overlook.” “Oversee,” from Old English ofersēon ‘look at from above,’ means ‘supervise’ (medieval Latin for the same thing: super- ‘over’ + videre ‘to see.’) “Overlook” usually means the opposite: ‘to fail to see or observe; to pass over without noticing; to disregard, ignore.’*

3. Left can mean either remaining or departed. If the gentlemen have withdrawn to the drawing room for after-dinner cigars, who’s left? (The gentlemen have left and the ladies are left.)*

4. Dust, along with the next two words, is a noun turned into a verb meaning either to add or to remove the thing in question. Only the context will tell you which it is. When you dust are you applying dust or removing it? It depends whether you’re dusting the crops or the furniture.*

5. Seed can also go either way. If you seed the lawn you add seeds, but if you seed a tomato you remove them.*

6. Stone is another verb to use with caution. You can stone some peaches, but please don’t stone your neighbor (even if he says he likes to get stoned).*

7. Trim as a verb predates the noun, but it can also mean either adding or taking away. Arising from an Old English word meaning ‘to make firm or strong; to settle, arrange,’ “trim” came to mean ‘to prepare, make ready.’ Depending on who or what was being readied, it could mean either of two contradictory things: ‘to decorate something with ribbons, laces, or the like to give it a finished appearance’ or ‘to cut off the outgrowths or irregularities of.’ And the context doesn’t always make it clear. If you’re trimming the tree are you using tinsel or a chain saw?*

8. Cleave can be cleaved into two “homographs,” words with different origins that end up spelled the same. “Cleave,” meaning ‘to cling to or adhere,’ comes from an Old English word that took the forms cleofian, clifian, or clīfan. “Cleave,” with the contrary meaning ‘to split or sever (something), ‘ as you might do with a cleaver, comes from a different Old English word, clēofan. The past participle has taken various forms: “cloven,” which survives in the phrase “cloven hoof,” “cleft,” as in a “cleft palate” or “cleaved.”*

9. Resign works as a contronym in writing. This time we have homographs, but not homophones. “Resign,” meaning ‘to quit,’ is spelled the same as “resign,” meaning ‘to sign up again,’ but it’s pronounced differently.*

10. Fast can mean "moving rapidly," as in "running fast," or ‘fixed, unmoving,’ as in "holding fast." If colors are fast they will not run. The meaning ‘firm, steadfast’ came first. The adverb took on the sense ‘strongly, vigorously,’ which evolved into ‘quickly,’ a meaning that spread to the adjective.*

11. Off means ‘deactivated,’ as in "to turn off," but also ‘activated,’ as in "The alarm went off."*

12. Weather can mean ‘to withstand or come safely through,’ as in “The company weathered the recession,” or it can mean ‘to be worn away’: “The rock was weathered.”*

13. Screen can mean ‘to show’ (a movie) or ‘to hide’ (an unsightly view).*

14. Help means ‘assist,’ unless you can’t help doing something, when it means ‘prevent.’

The contronym (also spelled “contranym”) goes by many names, including “auto-antonym,” “antagonym,” “enantiodrome,” “self-antonym,” “antilogy” and “Janus word” (from the Roman god of beginnings and endings, often depicted with two faces looking in opposite directions).

Read the full text here: Source

The Difference between United Kingdom, Great Britain and England

The terminology of the UK is quite complicated, so it’s no wonder that people get confused. Are Great Britain, the UK and England the same thing? Is Ireland part of the UK?　What’s Wales!? To help explain things, this infographic defines the parts that make up the UK and how it came about. 

Source

Lexicon Materials (compiled)

Here is the materials of Lexicon I compiled (Mr. Giri).

Good luck for your examination

Click here to download

Old English Words and Modern Meanings

Examination of Old English words along with their modern meanings can give you a glimpse of how languages develop through time. The first form of English as a language is termed Old English and came into being during the 5th century. 

Modern Meanings of Old English Words

Many common words and verbs can be found in Old English that hold the same meaning today. For example, the following words all show roots in Old English:

• Strong
• Water
• Be
• Beam

By reviewing literature written in the period that Old English was used you can see the many Old English words that are very similar to words found in modern English. For example:

• Eald - means old
• Brodor - means brother
• Hus - means house
• Nett - means net
• Riht - means right

It can be difficult to determine the modern meaning of some Old English words because there are often multiple words which have similar meanings. For example, three descriptions of females are:

• Widuwe - stands for widow
• Wif - means wife
• Wifmann - the term for woman

Influence of Other Languages on Old English

Examination of Old English and modern English seems to indicate that many of the words we use today find their roots in the vocabulary of Old English. Some estimates claim that about half of the words used today have their roots in Old English. This should not be that surprising since English has its roots in the Germanic languages.

Many of the Old English words also came from influence of the Romans and Greeks. These words were borrowed by the Germanic conquerors and incorporated into Old English. For example, the following words were adapted from the Romans, Greeks and from Latin:

• Apostle - came from apostol
• Chalk - came from cealc
• Wine - came from win
• Monk - came from munuc

While the spelling is different, the meanings all follow the original words and correspond to the modern meanings.

Making Up New Words

As the need arose for new words for things that the Germanic conquerors were unfamiliar with, they would make up words rather than take Germanic words as descriptors.

Two examples of this are the words for astronomy and arithmetic. The invaders made up the words based on the root word "craeft" which meant an art or science.

• Astronomy became star-craft or tungolcraeft
• Arithmetic became number craft or rimcraeft

Now you know some old English words, their meanings and have a better understanding of the sources of our language.

Three Periods of English Language

English is often broken into three separate and distinct periods:

• Old English
• Middle English
• Modern English

Old English

Prior to the beginnings of English, the inhabitants of Great Britain spoke primarily Celtic languages. During the later part of the 5th century, three tribes invaded England from Western Germany and Denmark. These tribes spoke a similar language that, over the years, developed into Old English. Old English survived until the Norman invasion in 1066 by William the Conqueror. Following the invasion and conquest, the English language entered the period of Middle English.

Middle English

The invaders from the northern regions of France brought a form of French with them. The new language became the official language of the government, trade and the ruling class.

The division of the classes began to include linguistics, with the upper or noble classes speaking French, while the lower classes spoke Middle English. This continued until the 14th century when English once more became the common language.

Middle English changed considerably over the centuries to include a number of French words in the vocabulary.

Modern English

Beginning in the 15th century, the transition from Middle English to Modern English began. Much of the transition was due to the expansion of the British Empire throughout the world and to the development of printing.

The printing press and increase in publishing of books drove the standardization of the language. Spelling and grammar was formalized due to the publication of various literary works and pamphlets. Source

History of the English Language

A short history of the origins and development of English

English is a member of the Germanic family of languages.
Germanic is a branch of the Indo-European language family.

The history of the English language really started with the arrival of three Germanic tribes who invaded Britain during the 5th century AD. These tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, crossed the North Sea from what today is Denmark and northern Germany. At that time the inhabitants of Britain spoke a Celtic language. But most of the Celtic speakers were pushed west and north by the invaders - mainly into what is now Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The Angles came from "Englaland" [sic] and their language was called "Englisc" - from which the words "England" and "English" are derived.

Germanic invaders entered Britain on the east and south coasts in the 5th century.

Old English (450-1100 AD)

Part of Beowulf, a poem written in Old English.

The invading Germanic tribes spoke similar languages, which in Britain developed into what we now call Old English. Old English did not sound or look like English today. Native English speakers now would have great difficulty understanding Old English. Nevertheless, about half of the most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English roots. The words be,strong and water, for example, derive from Old English. Old English was spoken until around 1100.

Middle English (1100-1500)

An example of Middle English by Chaucer.

In 1066 William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy (part of modern France), invaded and conquered England. The new conquerors (called the Normans) brought with them a kind of French, which became the language of the Royal Court, and the ruling and business classes. For a period there was a kind of linguistic class division, where the lower classes spoke English and the upper classes spoke French. In the 14th century English became dominant in Britain again, but with many French words added. This language is called Middle English. It was the language of the great poet Chaucer (c1340-1400), but it would still be difficult for native English speakers to understand today.

Early Modern English (1500-1800)

Hamlet's famous "To be, or not to be" lines,
written in Early Modern English by Shakespeare.

Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden and distinct change in pronunciation (the Great Vowel Shift) started, with vowels being pronounced shorter and shorter. From the 16th century the British had contact with many peoples from around the world

This, and the Renaissance of Classical learning, meant that many new words and phrases entered the language. The invention of printing also meant that there was now a common language in print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to read. 

Printing also brought standardization to English. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the dialect of London, where most publishing houses were, became the standard. In 1604 the first English dictionary was published.

Modern English (1800-Present)

A cover from Charles Dickens' 
Oliver Twist in 1837. Source

The main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from two principal factors: firstly, the Industrial Revolution and technology created a need for new words; secondly, the British Empire at its height covered one quarter of the earth's surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries.

Varieties of English

From around 1600, the English colonization of North America resulted in the creation of a distinct American variety of English. Some English pronunciations and words "froze" when they reached America. In some ways, American English is more like the English of Shakespeare than modern British English is. Some expressions that the British call "Americanisms" are in fact original British expressions that were preserved in the colonies while lost for a time in Britain (for example trash for rubbish, loan as a verb instead of lend, and fall for autumn; another example, frame-up, was re-imported into Britain through Hollywood gangster movies). Spanish also had an influence on American English (and subsequently British English), with words like canyon, ranch, stampede and vigilante being examples of Spanish words that entered English through the settlement of the American West. French words (through Louisiana) and West African words (through the slave trade) also influenced American English (and so, to an extent, British English).

Sometimes American and British English users spell things differently.

Some words for the same things are different in British and American English. Source

Today, American English is particularly influential, due to the USA's dominance of cinema, television, popular music, trade and technology (including the Internet). But there are many other varieties of English around the world, including for example Australian English, New Zealand English, Canadian English, South African English, Indian English and Caribbean English. Source

The figure above shows the timeline of the history of the English language.

Which one do you use "-er" or "more"??

Source: YUniversity

So what is the difference between "lately" and "recently" ?

source: YUNinversity