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"contronym" = "Janus word"?

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Egbert White

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Jul 13, 2009, 8:49:38 AM7/13/09
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In William Safire's column in the Sunday NY Times, the term "Janus
verb" pops up. It refers to verbs that can have opposite meanings,
just as Janus is the chap with two faces looking in opposite
directions.

Could "Janus word" be a refreshing substitute for the tired old AUE
term "contronym"?
--
Egbert White
WAmE

Maria Conlon

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Jul 13, 2009, 10:56:26 AM7/13/09
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My first thought, rightly or wrongly, on hearing "Janus word" was that
the word reads the same forwards as backwards. (Heteronym or
palindrome.)

Wikipedia, by the way, says "contranym (originally spelled contronym)"
in its article labeled "auto-antonym."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contronym

--
Maria Conlon

Mark Brader

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Jul 13, 2009, 1:53:35 PM7/13/09
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> Could "Janus word" be a refreshing substitute for the tired old AUE
> term "contronym"?

No, it could be an inferior substitute for the fine word "contronym".
--
Mark Brader "You can't [compare] computer memory and recall
Toronto with human memory and recall. It's comparing
m...@vex.net apples and bicycles." -- Ed Knowles

Egbert White

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Jul 13, 2009, 4:30:06 PM7/13/09
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Searching for "contranym" at the AUE website, I get one hit:

Issue of October 28, 2005
Such words are called "contranyms," "auto-antonyms" or
"Janus words" (Janus being a Roman god often depicted as
having two faces). Other contranyms include ...
www.word-detective.com/102805.html - Cached

Searching for "contronym" at the AUE website, I get the following from
Michael Quinion's site:

World Wide Words: Janus-faced
A Janus-faced word is a contronym, a word like cleave that
has two opposing meanings. World Wide Words is copyright �
Michael Quinion, 1996�2009. ...
www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-jan1.htm

I disagree that "contronym" is an inferior spelling to "contranym."
Compare "synonym," "heteronym," and other formations on the root
"onym." The etymological source is the Greek "onyma", "name."

I think when Mark Israel first introduced a list of contronyms in hi
AUE FAQ, he spelled it "contranyms" and someone corrected him. Or
maybe it was the other way around. Anyway, his FAQ now has the
statement:

Richard Lederer, in Crazy English (Pocket Books, 1989,
ISBN 0-671-68907-X), calls these "contronyms".

FWIW, my spelling checker wants to change "contranym" to "contronym."
--
Egbert White
WAmE

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