Janus-Faced English

In the year 1666 a great fire swept through London and destroyed more than half the city, including three quarters of St Paul’s Cathedral. Sir Christopher Wren, the original designer of the Cathedral and perhaps the finest architect of all time, was commissioned to rebuild the great edifice. He began in 1675 and finished in 1710, a remarkably short period of time for such a task. When the magnificent edifice was completed, Queen Anne, the reigning mon­arch, visited the Cathedral and told Wren that his work was “awful, artificial, and amusing.” Sir Christopher, so the story goes, was delighted with the royal compliment, be­cause in those days awful meant “full of awe, awe-inspiring,” artificial meant “artistic,” and amusing, from the muses, meant “amazing.”

That was three hundred years ago. Today, the older, tottering meanings of awful, artificial, and amusing have virtually disappeared from popular use. Indeed, the general rule of language is that when a single word develops two polar meanings, one will become obsolete. Occasionally, though, two diametrically opposed meanings of the same English word survive, and the technical term for these schizophrenics is contronym. More popularly, they are known as Janus-faced words because the Greek god Janus had two faces that looked in opposite directions.

Here’s a little finger exercise. Remember that I’m the teacher, so you must try to do what I ask. Make a circle with the fingers on your left hand by touching the tip of your index finger to the tip of your thumb. Now poke your bead through that circle.

If you unsuccessfully tried to fit your head through me small digital circle, you (and almost any reader) thought that the phrase “poke your head” meant that your head was the poker. But if you raised your left hand with the circle of fingers up close to your forehead and poked your right index finger through that circle until it touched your forehead, you realized that the phrase “poke your head” has a second, and opposite, meaning: that the head is the pokee.

Here are two sentences that will solidify your under­standing of how Janus-faced words work:

“The moon is VISIBLE tonight.”

“The lights in the old house are always INVISIBLE.”

Although the two capitalized words are opposite in meaning, both can be replaced by the same word — out. When the moon or sun or stars are out, they are visible When the lights are out, they are invisible.

Here are some contronymic sentences that show how words wander wondrously and testify to the fact that noth­ing in the English language is absolute:

with. alongside; against: a. England fought with France against Germany, b. England fought with France.

clip. fasten; separate: a. Clip the coupon to the news­paper. b. Clip the coupon from the newspaper.

fast. firmly in one place; rapidly from one place to another: a. The pegs held the tent fast. b. She ran fast.

bolt. to secure in place; to dart away: a. I’ll bolt the door. Did you see the horse bolt?

trim. add things to; cut away: a. Let’s trim the Christmas tree. b. Let’s trim the hedge.

dust. remove material from; spread material on: a. Three times a week they dust the floor. b. Three times each season they dust the crops.

weather. withstand; wear away: a. Strong ships weather storms. b. Wind can weather rocks.

handicap. advantage, disadvantage: a. What’s your handicap in golf? b. His lack of education is a handicap.

commencement. beginning; conclusion: a. Beautiful weather marked the commencement of spring. b. She won an award at her high school commencement.

bold up. support: hinder: a. Please hold up the sagging branch. b. Accidents hold up the flow of traffic.

keep up. continue to fail; continue to stay up: a. The farmers hope that the rain will keep up. b. Damocles hoped that the sword above his head would keep up.

left. departed from; remaining: a. Ten people left the room. b. Five people were left in the room.

dress. put items on; remove items from: a. Let’s dress for the ball. b. Let’s dress the chicken for cooking.

temper. soften; strengthen: a. You must temper your anger with reason. b. Factories temper steel with additives.

cleave. separate; adhere firmly, a. A strong blow will cleave a plank in two. b. Bits of metal cleave to a magnet.

strike. secure in place; remove: a. Use a firm grip to strike the nail. b. When the show is over, we’ll strike the set.

give out. produce; slop producing: a. A good furnace will give out enough energy to heat the house. b. A broken furnace will often give out.

sanction. give approval of; censure: a. The plans to sanction the event. b. Should our country impose a new sanction on Libya?

screen. view; hide from view: a. Tonight the critics will screen the film. b. Defensemen mustn’t screen the puck.

oversight. careful supervision; neglect; a. The foreman was responsible for the oversight of the project. b. The foreman’s oversight ruined the success of the project.

qualified. competent, limited: a. The candidate for the job was fully qualified. b. The dance was a qualified success.

moot. debatable; not worthy of debate: a. Сарital punishment is a moot point. b. That the earth revolves around the sun is a moot point.

certain. definite; difficult to specify: a. I am certain about what I want in life. b. I have a certain feeling about the plan.

mortal. deadly, subject to death: a. The knight delivered a mortal blow. b. All humans are mortal.

buckle. fasten together; fall apart: a. Safe drivers buckle their seat belts. b. Unsafe buildings buckle at the slightest tremor of the earth.

trip. to stumble; to move gracefully: a. Don’t trip on the curb. b. Let’s trip the light fantastic.

put out. generate; extinguish: a. The candle put out enough light for us to see. b. Before I went to bed, I put out the candle.

unbending. rigid; relaxing: a. On the job Smith is completely unbending. b. Relaxing on the beach is a good way of unbending.

wear. endure through use; decay through use; a. This suit will wear like iron. b. Water can cause mountains to wear.

scan. examine carefully, glance at hastily: a. I scan the poem. b. Each day, I scan the want ads.

fix. restore; remove part of: a. It’s time to fix the fence. b. It’s time to fix the bull.

seeded. with seeds; without seeds: a. The rain nour­ished the seeded field. b. Would you like some seeded raisins?

critical. opposed; essential to: a. Joanne is critical of our effort. b. Joanne is critical to our effort.

better. admire more; be suspicious of: a. I think better of the first proposal than the second. b. If I were you, I’d think better of that proposal.

take. obtain; offer a. Professional photographers take good pictures. b. Professional models take good pictures.

impregnable. invulnerable to penetration; able to be impregnated: a. The castle was so strongly built that it was impregnable. b. Treatments exist for making a childless woman more impregnable.

below par. excellent; poor: a. Her below par score won the golf tournament. b. I’m disappointed in your below par performance on the spelling test.

down hill. adverse; easy: a. When the source of capital dried up, the fortunes of the corporation went down hill. b. After you switch to diet drinks, it will be all down hill for your weight-loss program.

wind up. start; end: a.1 have to wind up my watch. b. Now I have to wind up this discussion of curious and contrary contronyms.

Task 3. Read the text. Spot as many “animal” idioms as you can. What stylistic colouring do they have?

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 806