From: utzoo!dciem!mmt
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Title: Re: words which mean their opposites
Article-I.D.: dciem.137
Posted: Thu Jan  6 10:29:00 1983
Received: Thu Jan  6 16:08:39 1983

So far, through the net or through friends, I have come up with
four words, which include five polar pairs of meanings:
	cleave -- to or apart
	fast -- stuck fast or run fast
	topped -- a building that is topped has a top put on, but
                   a tree or a person that is topped has the top (head)
                   taken off
	overlook -- (1) look beyond, not see or notice 
			or survey from above, examine.
                    (2) supervise workers
                         or cast the evil eye, bewitch
The second pair of meanings for overlook might be considered dubious,
because it is not always clear that the supervisor of workers is trying
to get them performing well, whereas the bewitcher is trying to get
them to perform badly; however, the OED says that "overlook" is the
most commonly used word for casting the evil eye, so I think we should
count it, if only because of the rarity of having two completely different
polar opposit meanings from one word.
		Martin Taylor