From: utzoo!decvax!yale-com!brunix!gh
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Title: Re: words which mean their opposites
Article-I.D.: brunix.1192
Posted: Sun Jan  9 10:31:52 1983
Received: Mon Jan 10 01:31:44 1983
References: machaids.231,dciem.137,rabbit.1030

Abe Shliferstein's comment, that "bimonthly" is not interchangeable with
"semimonthly", is a nice theory, but, alas, not in keeping with modern usage.
My Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (one of those nasty ones that that just
records usage, no matter how bad, without comment), lists both meanings for
the word.  Even the usage note Abe quotes from the American Heritage Dictionary
contains the hedge "in careful usage", unusual for the AHD's notes.  The sad
fact is that to the confusion of all, 99% of usage is not "careful", and the
other 1% is not flagged as careful and so is still ambiguous.