7 Words That Are Their Own Opposites

One of the oddities of the English language is that words can have multiple contradictory definitions. Think of the word “trim” — it can mean “to decorate,” as in “trim the tree,” or it can mean “to remove excess material,” as in “trim my bangs.” These words with opposite definitions can be called contronyms, antagonyms, autoantonyms, and Janus words. (Janus was the ancient Roman god of beginnings and endings, often depicted with two faces looking in opposite directions, one to the past and the other to the future.) Here are some of the most common contronyms you’ll come across in your everyday vocabulary.

You need to know a little about the history of archery for this one. “Bolt” originally comes from the Germanic bolz, meaning “crossbow.” When it came into Old English, “bolt” referred to both a crossbow and its projectiles, which were short, stout arrows with heavy heads. Later, in Middle English, “bolt” came to refer to any short metal rod. By the 15th century, the word also applied to pins used to fasten objects together.

The weaponry gave rise to other usages of the word. The purpose of a crossbow is to launch an arrow with great velocity. Thus, as early as the 13th century, “bolt” as a verb came to mean “to make a quick start,” and by the 17th century, it meant “to leave suddenly.”

So now, “bolt” has contradictory meanings — as a noun it refers to a metal rod used to fasten objects together firmly, and as a verb, it means “to move suddenly,” in one sense meaning you are no longer connected.

In ancient combat, warriors used shields to protect against blows. At the center of those shields was the boss, a round, convex piece of thick metal meant to ward off strikes. 

In Late Latin, buccula referred to the boss of a shield, based on the Latin bucca, meaning “cheek,” as its shape was similar to the round part of the face. In the Middle Ages, “bocle” referred to both a shield’s boss and to a ring. By the 14th century, “bocle” had turned into “buckle,” a word for a fastener. 

But “buckle” as a verb also means “to collapse.” The underlying idea is that strong pressure was required to create the rounded boss of heavy metal for a shield. The verb form can be traced to the French boucler, meaning “to bulge.”

These similar roots give “buckle” its contradictory meanings. As a noun, it is a fastener. As a verb it can mean “to fasten with a buckle,” but also “to cause to bend and crumple.” 

The two contradictory meanings of “cleave” derive from two distinct Old English words. “Cleave,” meaning “to adhere together closely,” derives from the Old English clifian, meaning “to adhere.” “Cleave,” meaning “to split,” is from the Old English clēofan, also meaning “to split.” It’s only happenstance that both Old English words evolved to one modern spelling with two opposite meanings.

We clip the hedges when we cut them with a sharp instrument, but we also clip pages together when we fasten them with a paperclip or a stapler.

When referring to cutting things apart, “clip” is from the Old Norse klippa, meaning “to cut or sever with a sharp instrument.” The “clip” for fastening things together is from the Old English clyppan, meaning “to embrace, clasp, surround,” unrelated to the Old Norse word.  

“Fast” can mean either “firmly fixed, constant, steadfast,” as in “colorfast fabrics” and “fast asleep,” or “characterized by quick motion, operation, or effect,” as in a “fast runner.”  

In Old English, faest meant “to be firmly fixed, secure, enclosed, watertight,” giving us the constancy usage. The adjective and adverb usage probably comes from the Old Norse fast, which meant “firmly” but also had the usage of “vigorously,” giving rise to the “speedily” connotation. Another theory ties the adverb to the “held firm” context, meaning someone who runs fast will stick closely to whatever he is chasing. 

If you take charge of something, you have oversight of the project. But if you make an error in doing so, it’s an oversight. “Oversight” can mean both “to direct or manage a job, process, or organization,” and “to make a careless error.”

Unlike some other contronyms, both these meanings derive from the same compound word. “Over” is from the Old English ofer, meaning “beyond, above, across,” and “sight” is from the Old English gesiht, meaning “faculty of sight, vision.” When managing something, you are looking over everything, and when making a mistake, you’re overlooking something. 

A legal authority can either permit or prohibit conduct. In the legal context, a sanction is a punishment, as when the United Nations imposes sanctions against member nations. But “sanction” can also mean “to authorize an action,” as in the example of a FIFA-sanctioned soccer tournament.

Context is the key to understanding which meaning applies, because they both come from the same root. “Sanction” derives from the Latin sanctionem, meaning “the act of decreeing or ordaining, a decree, ordinance, or law.” Initially, “sanction” applied to ecclesiastical decrees. The extended sense of imposing an authoritative penalty arose in the 17th century, and by the 18th century it applied to authoritative permission outside of church decrees.