What's the opposite of "chair"?
Simone
...yes, I do mean the noun.
Please use your imagination, the world awaits your answers.
Admiral Jota
sub...@ixc.net (Simone) writes:
>...yes, I do mean the noun.
>Please use your imagination, the world awaits your answers.
Unchair.
--
/<-= -=-=- -= Admiral Jota =- -=-=- =->\
__/><-=- http://www.tiac.net/users/jota/ =-><\__
\><-= jo...@mv.mv.com -- Finger for PGP =-></
\<-=- -= -=- -= -==- =- -=- =- -=->/
Joe Marvin
riahc
Arthur C Clay
wall
Ed Murphy
sub...@ixc.net (Simone) wrote:
> ...yes, I do mean the noun.
> Please use your imagination, the world awaits your answers.
Chair: An object normally used by sitting in it.
[...]: An object not normally used by sitting in it.
Any number of words ("television", "orange", "pot") fit this
definition, which is opposite the definition of a chair.
--
Ed Murphy <zvy...@ix.netcom.com> "A person who is 'of sound mind'
http://www.bayside.net/users/ford/ is one who keeps the inner madman
#include <std/disclaimer.h> under lock and key." -Paul Valery
Dennis A. Sevakis
Simone wrote:
>
> ...yes, I do mean the noun.
>
> Please use your imagination, the world awaits your answers.
All of the points in space that are not part of a chair...yeah right.
This seems rather absurd since I asked the question "What is the
opposite of cat" to my 8 year old cousin. He replied (In a naturally
American way) by saying "dog." I said "Ok.", and then left the room
for a few minutes (had to get something from the patio outside).
I walked back in and posed this question: "If dog is the opposite
of cat, then what is the opposite of snake?" (All nouns mind you)
Of course he wasn't able to answer. I pointed out this flaw in
reasoning to him and he understood my point very quickly.
It seems to me that wars get fought over apparent "opposites" such
as this. The common perception is that there exists a cat/dog
dichotomy and you just don't mix the two, hence, they become fixed in
our mental structures as being opposites.
There really is no opposite to chair. There are no opposites to
nouns unless those words are intended as names for two mutually
exlusive entities. (If you say "LOVE and HATE" I'll slap you cause
they aren't! "GOOD and EVIL" is unacceptable too since they don't
exist!)
Proton/Anti-proton...right...
+/-...close as you'll get.
north/south...hmmmm....but where are the monopoles?
dog/cat?...snake/???...nope...chair/???? I don't think so.
Mike *still waiting to get his comp back*
David Spero
opposite of chair:
cat
or maybe hat (same idea)
rank-and-filer
I thought I'd be able to think of a lot more, but not at 2:37AM, i guess.
Fred Galvin
On Sun, 29 Sep 1996, Simone wrote:
> ...yes, I do mean the noun.
>
> Please use your imagination, the world awaits your answers.
"antichair"--a chair made of antimatter
Dafydd Price Jones
In article <324e1f4...@198.70.48.2>, Simone
<sub...@ixc.net> writes
>...yes, I do mean the noun.
How about "reprieve"?
--
| Dafydd Price Jones
dafy...@dafyddpj.demon.co.uk
In an ideal world we would chair and chair alike
Tom Magliery
In article <52npfl$e...@sjx-ixn6.ix.netcom.com>, zvy...@ix.netcom.com (Ed
Murphy) wrote:
> sub...@ixc.net (Simone) wrote:
> > ...yes, I do mean the noun.
> > Please use your imagination, the world awaits your answers.
>
> Chair: An object normally used by sitting in it.
> [...]: An object not normally used by sitting in it.
>
> Any number of words ("television", "orange", "pot") fit this
> definition, which is opposite the definition of a chair.
There are other possible syntactical ways to form the "opposite"
definition, you get different sets of nouns which can serve as opposites.
Of course, all of these assume that you've got the correct definition for
"chair" to begin with. For example:
[opp2]: An object normally used by not sitting in it.
[opp3]: An object abnormally used by sitting in it.
[opp4]: An object normally used by sitting out of it.
[opp5]: An object normally used by standing in it.
Personally I like [opp5] the best. So I'll offer "shoe" as my opposite
for "chair".
ObPuzzle: For each of the above "opposite-of-chair" classifications, find
a noun that belongs to it, but to none of the others.
mag
--
.---o Tom Maglierygry, Research Programmer .---o
`-O-. NCSA, 605 E. Springfield (217) 333-3198 `-O-.
o---' Champaign, IL 61820 O- m...@ncsa.uiuc.edu o---'
Chris Brand
In my dining room, another chair.
--
Chris
Stating my own opinions, not those of my company.
Woody Brison
> ...yes, I do mean the noun.
>
> Please use your imagination, the world awaits your answers.
Gloom?
Dennis A. Sevakis
er...@reell.com wrote:
>
> On Mon, 30 Sep 1996 03:36:16 -0400, you wrote:
>
> >(If you say "LOVE and HATE" I'll slap you cause
> >they aren't!
>
>
> ---
> Eric Merrill
> er...@reell.com
I'd agree. In their purest sense they are mutually exclusive. But
to me, those are more like compliments...hyeh!
Mike *still needs to call about his own comp...maybe it's gone for good
:(*
Jason L. Pollack
Chair: Something with four legs that you sit on.
Cat: Something with four legs that sits on you.
Well, *my* cat does, anyway.
:)
Jason
Woody Brison
Opposite of chair:
One thought comes to mind after time has passed: "Table and
chair(s)" is a common phrase; they are sold together, grouped
together, of less use separated. Thus if you are considering
the group, then the one element (table) is opposite the other
(chair).
Lee Anne De Wan
: Please use your imagination, the world awaits your answers.
3 that I can think of
shoes
swimming pool
bed
???
Paul Filseth
Acquittal.
--
Paul Filseth I promise to be different. I promise to be unique.
p...@lsil.com I promise not to repeat things other people say.
- Steve Martin
Richard
Arthur C Clay wrote:
>
> wall
how about
riahc
Ed Murphy
"Jason L. Pollack" <JPol...@davd.com> wrote:
> Chair: Something with four legs that you sit on.
> Cat: Something with four legs that sits on you.
No, the real opposite of "chair" is "Dogbert".
Anders Reed Mohn
Opposite of chair ?
Hmm..
No, I don't want to make a _stand_ in this issue ..
Anders :)
Steve Sosensky
On Sun, 29 Sep 1996 07:10:08 GMT, sub...@ixc.net (Simone) wrote:
>...yes, I do mean the noun.
>Please use your imagination, the world awaits your answers.
Noose.
Steve
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Sosensky | |^^^^^|/ | 10834 Blix Street #213
photographer | | |\ | Toluca Lake, CA 91602
mailto:ste...@loop.com | ^^T^^ | 818-508-4946
http://www.loop.com/~steves | / \ | 34*09'02" N, 118*22'47" W
| / \ |
Steve Collier
Ed Murphy wrote:
>
> sub...@ixc.net (Simone) wrote:
> > ...yes, I do mean the noun.
> > Please use your imagination, the world awaits your answers.
>
> [...]: An object not normally used by sitting in it.
>
> Any number of words ("television", "orange", "pot") fit this
> definition, which is opposite the definition of a chair.
Maybe the poster wants (but IMHO will never get) a "transitive" opposite,
i.e., a pair that works both ways, like proton and antiproton. And what
kind of opposite do we want e.g. logical, negation, set-type, or the word
that the most people would say if you asked them for an opposite?
If I said, "what's the noun for the opposite of 'a lack of a chair'?"
what would you say?
--
OECD Halden reactor project ^ fax: +47 6918 7109
Postboks 173, @ /|\ tel: +47 6918 3100
1751 Halden, _< \, '/|\` http://www.ife.no/
Norway_________________________(*)>(*)_______' | `_____I pre-fir cycling
indy
(Simone wrote:
>...yes, I do mean the noun.
Ohhhh.... As a verb it would be much too easy.
>Please use your imagination, the world awaits your answers.
Hmmm... First get a mirror..... OK, now hold it up to the screen
under the word CHAIR. You now have the opposite of chair.
.....indy
jshu...@waikato.ac.nz
In article <mag-300996...@jayhawk.ncsa.uiuc.edu>, m...@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Tom Magliery) writes:
> In article <52npfl$e...@sjx-ixn6.ix.netcom.com>, zvy...@ix.netcom.com (Ed
> Murphy) wrote:
>
>>
>> [...]: An object not normally used by sitting in it.
>>
>> Any number of words ("television", "orange", "pot") fit this
>> definition, which is opposite the definition of a chair.
>
Star Trek has the answer:
matter...anti-matter
chair ...anti-chair
John "QED" Hunter
Jeffrey Watson
Dennis A. Sevakis (spi...@ix.netcom.com) wrote:
: Simone wrote:
: I walked back in and posed this question: "If dog is the opposite
: of cat, then what is the opposite of snake?" (All nouns mind you)
How about millipede?
Back to the original question, what is the opposite of chair?
A chair lift takes me up the mountain, my skiis take me back down.
Alternatively, I sit in a chair to work, I stand on my skiis to have
fun.
--
____________________________________________________________________________
| |
| Jeff Watson ##### / ##### R&D Department |
| Hewlett-Packard Company ### /_ _ ### ICBD Application Engineer |
| Barcelona Division (BPO) ## / / / / ## e-mail: wat...@bpo.hp.com |
| Avda. Graells, 501 ## / / /_/ ## Phone : +34 3 582 20 92 |
| 08190 S. Cugat (Barcelona) ### / ### Fax : +34 3 582 24 73 |
| SPAIN ##### / ##### Telnet: 712-2092 |
|____________________________________________________________________________|
indy
Anders wrote:
>No, I don't want to make a _stand_ in this issue ..
A Pun that was obviously just_sitting_there!
...indy
Mariza Cabral
In article <inZa0EA1...@yendor.demon.co.uk>,
Edward Edmondson <Edw...@yendor.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>>dog/cat?...snake/???...nope...chair/???? I don't think so.
>>
>>Mike *still waiting to get his comp back*
>
>of opposites is meaningless.
Entirely agree! The same argument as I was making for the Berry Number.
It's not that it doesn't exist, it's that its definition is meaningless.
Dennis A. Sevakis
Edward Edmondson wrote:
>
> In article <324F78...@ix.netcom.com>, "Dennis A. Sevakis"
> <spi...@ix.netcom.com> writes
> >Simone wrote:
<snip>
> I would say not simply that opposites don't exist but that the concept
> of opposites is meaningless.
implied that it is only meaningful under certain circumstances. Under
many, however, they are not. These two lists may blur the meaning of
"mutally exclusive". If one considers "opposites" to mean "something
opposed to another" (where'd that come from?), why would opposites
attract (unlike charges, for example)? Perhaps "complements attract"
is a better way of stating this. Why are opposite colors known as
complementary colors?
These need the other in order to see the differnce (meaningful):
north/south, east/west, up/down, left/right, port/starboard,
sit/stand, drunk/sober
These do not (meaningless):
dog/cat, chair/ski, love/hate, car/truck, digital/analog
Many complements, no real opposites. (Ready to split hairs?)
If Simon says, "Do the opposite.", what do you do? What do you do?
Mike
> --
> Edward Edmondson
>
> Turnpike evaluation. For information, see http://www.turnpike.com/
Paul Weiss
>
> There are other possible syntactical ways to form the "opposite"
> definition, you get different sets of nouns which can serve as opposites.
> Of course, all of these assume that you've got the correct definition for
> "chair" to begin with. For example:
>
> [opp2]: An object normally used by not sitting in it.
> [opp3]: An object abnormally used by sitting in it.
> [opp4]: An object normally used by sitting out of it.
> [opp5]: An object normally used by standing in it.
>
> Personally I like [opp5] the best. So I'll offer "shoe" as my opposite
> for "chair".
>
> ObPuzzle: For each of the above "opposite-of-chair" classifications, find
> a noun that belongs to it, but to none of the others.
>
How about these:
[spoiler space]
[opp2] normally used by not sitting in it ... pencil (ouch!)
[opp3] abnormally used by sitting in it ... toilet bowl
[opp4] normally used by sitting out of it ... a dance ;-0
[opp5] normally used by standing in it ... a corner
Pretty difficult, IMHO, to exclude ANYTHING from opp2 category, so I'm not
sure whether I'd call my answers completely correct, but I had fun
thinking of them anyway.
--
Cheers,
Paul Weiss
Backwater Trails: http://www.netaccess.on.ca/~cpweiss/BWT/BWT.html
E-mail: cpw...@netaccess.on.ca
Personal Home Page: http://www.netaccess.on.ca/~cpweiss/
Quote:"A symposium on time-travel will be held two weeks ago"
"Does anal retentive have a hyphen?"
Stephen H. Houchen
>>No, I don't want to make a _stand_ in this issue ..
>
>A Pun that was obviously just_sitting_there!
Oohh!! That was so bad I thought everybody could seat coming!
--Steve
shho...@aud.alcatel.com
Richard
Mariza Cabral wrote:
>
> In article <inZa0EA1...@yendor.demon.co.uk>,
> Edward Edmondson <Edw...@yendor.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> >>
> >>dog/cat?...snake/???...nope...chair/???? I don't think so.
> >>
> >>Mike *still waiting to get his comp back*
> >
> >of opposites is meaningless.
>
> It's not that it doesn't exist, it's that its definition is meaningless.
How about sweet & sour, sweet & bitter, sour & bitter -- are any
of these opposites?
John McGowan
Admiral Jota (jo...@laraby.tiac.net) wrote:
> sub...@ixc.net (Simone) writes:
> >...yes, I do mean the noun.
> Unchair.
Or -chair (minus chair if chair is a variable in a programme and opposite
means additive inverse)
Jukka Kohonen
cpw...@netaccess.on.ca (Paul Weiss) writes:
>[opp2] normally used by not sitting in it ... pencil (ouch!)
I beg to differ. If you say that you normally use a pencil by not sitting
in it, you are saying that "not sitting in the pencil" is an activity
that you perform in order to use the pencil. It also suggests that
when you are not using the pencil, you are not performing the act of
"not sitting in the pencil".
So, you are usually sitting in the pencil (when you are not using it),
but every now and then you stop the sitting for a while, which is
how you use the pencil. After use, you sit down in the pencil again.
>...
>Pretty difficult, IMHO, to exclude ANYTHING from opp2 category,
Taking my interpretation above, it is actually pretty hard to
think of ANYTHING that fits in opp2 category!
--
Jukka....@helsinki.fi * In pulti avenaceo veritas!
John Erner
The opposite of chair Huh? Well, let's see a chair is a place to sit; so
1st, what's the opposite of sit? Stand or maybe lie down. Either will do,
but for completeness it must be a something build for the express purpose
of standing or laying down; so well podium or bed work.
JFC
> The opposite of chair?
A chair made of anti-matter? An anti-chair?
--
JFC ca...@ix.netcom.com,ca...@juno.com,at...@rgfn.epcc.edu
"My country is not ONE country, my country is all countries ...
No! It is the whole world as God has made it,
ONE and without borders."
Fred Galvin
On Sun, 29 Sep 1996, Simone wrote:
> ...yes, I do mean the noun.
>
> Please use your imagination, the world awaits your answers.
In some states, "life".
Rick Banghart
> In article <mag-300996...@jayhawk.ncsa.uiuc.edu>, m...@ncsa.uiuc.edu
> (Tom Magliery) wrote:
>
> >
> > There are other possible syntactical ways to form the "opposite"
> > definition, you get different sets of nouns which can serve as opposites.
> > Of course, all of these assume that you've got the correct definition for
> > "chair" to begin with. For example:
> >
> > [opp2]: An object normally used by not sitting in it.
> > [opp3]: An object abnormally used by sitting in it.
> > [opp4]: An object normally used by sitting out of it.
> > [opp5]: An object normally used by standing in it.
> >
> > Personally I like [opp5] the best. So I'll offer "shoe" as my opposite
> > for "chair".
> >
> > ObPuzzle: For each of the above "opposite-of-chair" classifications, find
> > a noun that belongs to it, but to none of the others.
> >
>
But all of those definitions are for objects. Perhaps it is a non-object
not abnormally used by standing out of it. What is the opposite of object?
Subject?
Carl Witthoft
In article <banghar4-081...@210cc-mac-15.cl.msu.edu> bang...@pilot.msu.edu (Rick Banghart) writes:
>>
>But all of those definitions are for objects. Perhaps it is a non-object
>not abnormally used by standing out of it. What is the opposite of object?
>Subject?
(yr honor I object)
Inject ... or maybe unject :-=)
--
Carl Witthoft @ Adaptive Optics Associates
ca...@aoainc.com 54 CambridgePark Drive, Cambridge,MA 02140 617-864-0201
" Axis-navigo, ergo sum."
ecol...@ic3.ithaca.edu
You guys are so silly! You should know that the opposite of "chair" is
"duck," "duck" being the opposite of all words and each of them
individually as well (even itself sometimes, but those times are
impossible to determine).
Hope this clears up any remaining confusion.
Elijah
Stephen H. Landrum
Paul Weiss wrote:
>
> In article <mag-300996...@jayhawk.ncsa.uiuc.edu>, m...@ncsa.uiuc.edu
> (Tom Magliery) wrote:
>
> >
> > There are other possible syntactical ways to form the "opposite"
> > definition, you get different sets of nouns which can serve as opposites.
> > Of course, all of these assume that you've got the correct definition for
> > "chair" to begin with. For example:
> >
> > [opp2]: An object normally used by not sitting in it.
> > [opp3]: An object abnormally used by sitting in it.
> > [opp4]: An object normally used by sitting out of it.
> > [opp5]: An object normally used by standing in it.
> >
> > Personally I like [opp5] the best. So I'll offer "shoe" as my opposite
> > for "chair".
"Opposite" requires a frame of reference.
The opposite of chair with respect to addition is -chair.
The opposite of chair with respect to multiplication is 1/chair.
--
Stephen H. Landrum voice: (415)261-2626 email: slan...@3do.com
Software Craftsman, Technology Development division
I don't speak for 3DO. For one who does, try customer...@3do.com