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Crest of the pass...and then....downhill
Faldage,....allusion to mountainous pass, I think. Might there be another?
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We might have something here Trusty! Contranym!!?? Was just told of the existence of such a word. The dictionary in my office does not list it. The carpals will surely know! Is this the word/phenomenon that u were looking for. Does not however apply only to metaphors; applies to all such contrary words  .
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>The carpals will surely know!
this is indeed a major, multiple-yart! if you're interested, search for contranym, antagonym, enantiodromic...
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Not even Anita Hill vs Clarence Thomas?
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That was a downer.  Get down! Down of the goose... You can always go...downtown! (Petula Clark) Down and out. Calm down! Like a bridge over troubled waters, I will lay me down. (Simon and Garfunkel)
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Just for the fun of it, I pulled up Atomica on enantiodromic, and found the most interesting essay! http://www.well.com/~demarini/edison.htmlHe starts off by talking about Edison and the light bulb, and goes on into the invention of the phonograph. I'll put a couple of quotes: It is often the case that a new medium's first major flaw or contradiction is destined to become its dominant metaphor. The disembodying upside-downness of Della Porta's camera obscura, the shadows created by light falling on Niepce's photographic emulsion producing a "negative" image, the montage necessitated by the frailty and shortness of early celluloid film - these have become the mechanophors which convey the richness and complexity of our experience. ... Enantiodromic reversal at the atomic level can be used to symbolize opposing primal forces and may serve to mythicize otherwise commonplace occurrences. If you go to this site and click Back *, you'll get a page that includes this guy's (Paul DeMarinis) bio. Very interesting stuff. *Uh-oh--when I tested my link, it didn't give a Back button, so here's the link to the bio. page: http://www.well.com/~demarini/. If you go here to find the piece, click on Writings, then on the title which is: "Essay in Lieu of a Sonata (The Edison Effect)".
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Thanks Trusty, for the poser. Had lots of fun with it. U still havent said that this is what u were looking for, though.
Ran a check on Contranyms and the search threw up some lovely stuff. Apparently, its not a word thats as yet entered into the dictionaries, but is in use.
Usage traced back to (as far as I could go, might be earlier): David Grambs, 1984, Words about Words.
Definition: Words that are their own antonyms/ a word that has two opposing meanings. Commonest example is 'Cleave' : break apart or split, as also, stick fast or adhere.
Types:
1.Homonymic or Homographic contranyms (same spelling) eg. Cleave
2. One site lists another variety; Homophonic contranyms (different spellings, same pronunciation). Am not so convinced however. Seemed like some were just improper pronunciations. Oh dear! fear am opening the flood gates here! Check the following links for more examples. http://rec-puzzles.org/new/sol.pl/language/english/meaning/synonyms/contranym
http://members.cox.net/errantjuggler/thingsenglish/homophones/
'Homophones'- words that are pronounced the same, but differ in meaning, origin and spelling. eg. reed/read
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harumph! if you'd do your search locally, you'd see that we discussed 'cleave' as being two separate and distinct words (homonyms) that happen to have opposing definitions and is not a contronym (by Anu's own definition, "a word that generates two opposite meanings."
-joe birdseed and all the other mincers
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why was i harrumphed at!? Did look at the AWAD archives and quote below from guest wordsmith of that week - Richard Lederer. [confused]
contronym (KAHN-troh-NIM) noun
A word that generates two opposite meanings. More popularly, they are
known as Janus-faced words because the Greek god Janus had two faces
that looked in opposite directions.
"The moon is VISIBLE tonight."
"The lights in the old house are always INVISIBLE."
Although the two capitalized words are opposite in meaning, both can
be replaced by the same word -- out. When the moon or sun or stars are
out, they are visible. When the lights are out, they are invisible.
Thus, out is a contronym.
Other examples:
cleave: separate; adhere firmly.
a. A strong blow will cleave a plank in two.
b. Bits of metal cleave to a magnet.
oversight: careful supervision; neglect.
a. The foreman was responsible for the oversight of the project.
b. The foreman's oversight ruined the success of the project.
Source: AWAD archives, 1201
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Richard Lederer
Seems like we accosted him on this cleave/cleave thang and he recanted. At least in private
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