|
|
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,557 Likes: 1
Carpal Tunnel
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,557 Likes: 1 |
Stretch your imagination:
"Dressing up" has nothing to do with "dressing down."
Can you think of other sets like that?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Clap on, clap off...oh, wait.
Come on! Come off (it).
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Dressing up -- dressing down
Slow up -- slow down
These are two completely different categories. In the former there is pretty much no relation at all between the phrases and the latter are synonyms.
Bring up, in the sense of raising a topic. He brought up the matter of unequal access to natural resources.
Bring down, in the sense of stifling someone's good mood. He's constantly bringing me down whenever he sees me enjoying myself.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295 |
Throw up (sick)- throw down
Though where the up and down give synonymous meanings, that's interesting too.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 1,706
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 1,706 |
chopping up a log after chopping the tree down!
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
getting it on .. getting off
(but then most anything can be made salacious)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295 |
So the verb part of the one should refer to something completely different than the other?, Wofa Ho?
{ basically my English is not up to this preposition stuff, to use and understand those littlest ones right is the hardest thing with foreign languages}
Last edited by BranShea; 09/17/11 08:34 PM. Reason: see cursives
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 963
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 963 |
take on - take off
put on - put off
onset - offset
inset - outset
undertake - overtake
let on - let off
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,557 Likes: 1
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,557 Likes: 1 |
So the verb part of the one should refer to something completely different than the other?, Wofa Ho?
{ basically my English is not up to this preposition stuff, to use and understand those littlest ones right is the hardest thing with foreign languages} It's more that the parts look as if they should be opposites, but the wholes turn out to be completely unrelated. The incongruity makes you do a double-take. It's part of the perils of using idiomatic language. (My ninth grade French teacher tried to cure us of literal translation by asking us to translate, word by word, the sentence "I was left behind." Snickers everywhere...)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295 |
Ah, I see... hard to find other ones.
He didn't want to be dressing down a bunch of rookies.
Seattle Times Jul 21, 2011
“Dressing up is the new cool, and dressing down is old school,” he continued.
New York Times Sep 7, 2011
It can have both the normal opposite and your unrelated meaning.
I see.."J'etais à gauche derrière" ;-)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 1,706
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 1,706 |
so are the pairs similar to an oxymoron then Wofa
what about these...
not yet
not always
not ever
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,919 Likes: 3
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,919 Likes: 3 |
We had a Latin teacher with:
Ubi, ubi, sunt sub ubi.
----please, draw me a sheep----
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,557 Likes: 1
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,557 Likes: 1 |
so are the pairs similar to an oxymoron then Wofa
what about these...
not yet
not always
not ever
Not exactly. The oxymoron is a self-contained opposite -- "jumbo shrimp." These false opposites have the external appearance of opposites, but rather instead they are like two lines that don't even intersect, rather than going in the other direction. full duplex (teletype transmission in both directions at the same time) empty duplex (can't rent my apartment for love nor money) Your other examples are negation rather than contradiction .
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295 |
Excuse the off topic intermission. I see all these notifications of apparently spams in the list. Is there maybe a virus jumping around here? In your last post in this frase'
(can't rent my apartment for love nor money)The word money was a light blue link. I stupidly clicked on it and an advertisement popped up. The next minute it was gone.
Is this me my computer or is it this site? Scary.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 963
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 963 |
take from - take to
Some of these have multiple usages which may or may not be false opposites, depending on how you interpret them.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,557 Likes: 1
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,557 Likes: 1 |
The word "money" was a light blue link. I stupidly clicked on it and an advertisement popped up. The next minute it was gone.
That doesn't sound good. It's not linked/underlined on my display. I would guess it's local; if you have a virus checker, run it.
"...apparent spams on the list" -- what list is that?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,557 Likes: 1
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,557 Likes: 1 |
We had a Latin teacher with:
Ubi, ubi, sunt sub ubi !
Or the more compact (if somewhat grammatically inconsistent) "Semper ubi, sub ubi". But these are homonym problems, not those other kinds.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295 |
That would be the active topic list, where the 'notified' means
a reported spam item.
In the meantime I have found out about the enhanced link problem. It is something called 'text enhance', very annoying but not malignant. By finding the distributers of the pest you can have yourself removed from their unwanted attentions.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,919 Likes: 3
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,919 Likes: 3 |
We had a Latin teacher with:
Ubi, ubi, sunt sub ubi !
Or the more compact (if somewhat grammatically inconsistent) "Semper ubi, sub ubi". But these are homonym problems, not those other kinds. Semper ubi, sub ubi - good! as long as "scis ubi"
Last edited by LukeJavan8; 09/18/11 11:47 PM. Reason: typo
----please, draw me a sheep----
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,557 Likes: 1
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,557 Likes: 1 |
false opposites:
undercoat = paint
overcoat = clothing
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295 |
So can you give your overcoat a new undercoat?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,557 Likes: 1
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,557 Likes: 1 |
Indeed.
Another pseudo-pair is upright/downright.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 4
stranger
|
|
stranger
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 4 |
Pick up/put down... as in: He picked up the dog and put it down.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,919 Likes: 3
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,919 Likes: 3 |
----please, draw me a sheep----
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,361
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
647
guests, and
0
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
