Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Contranyms

Thanks to another entertaining romp through the English language with Stephen Fry I have learned the propernym for quantum words, which is contranym. The example used in the programme was sanction

Interestingly, (or confusingly) I cannot find contranym in the online OED, though I was under the impression that it was introduced in the programme by Jeremy Butterfield, a lexicographer & an OUP author.

And, just to round things off perfectly, my first attempt to find “Jeremy Butterfield” on Google led to - Quantum Entanglements, Rob Clifton, Book - Barnes & Noble


Posted by at
Labels: ,