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.