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