This week's theme is Janus words (or one of the other synonyms) starting out with cleave. Can you come up with two other English words that have approximately the same two opposite meanings as cleave?

Hi, Clarence, welcome aBoard. I can't think of any other than what Anu put. I'll be really interested to see the next four Words.

tsuwm, this week'll be right up your alley!
These are words, known by many names: autoantonym, contranym, self-antonym, enantiodromic, amphibolous, janus word, and so on.

You mean like splice, which can mean to join together or to split? That's a stretch though, since the "split" meaning is tagged "Obs., rare" by the OED.

I fired off an email to wordsmith this AM pointing out that, IMO, cleave(s) should not be put under the same headword (see M-W Collegiate, for example: link and link2).

He did say they were separate words that had come together in spelling and pronunciation. Also note that the verbs are strong (the split meaning.cleave, clove, cloven) and weak (the stuck together meaning, cleave, cleaved, cleaved).

yeahbut, mushing them together under one heading perpetuates the finding that cleave is one word with two opposing meanings.

So no takers to my quiz. Similar Janus word number two is CLIP. One may separate things by clipping coupons or using hair or fingernail clippers, or may conjoin things on a clipboard or with paper clips. Hint: the third word has three letters.

Irv did, Clarence. He just started a new thread, is all. But as to your third word (didn't realize you had a list), I'll guess "bad".

lists you want? check the external links at this wiki article.

Bad? Bad can mean "good" in certain cultures, but it certainly doesn't mean both "separate" and "adhere" like cleave and clip do. The mystery three-letter word also means both "separate" and "adhere." Marilyn vos Savant, who writes the "Ask Marilyn" column in the Parade Magazine Sunday newspaper supplement, once had a feature about Janus words—that's where I came across "clip." As to the three-letter word, it was in a crossword puzzle where it was clued in its opposite meaning. Answer next week.

How about cut?
1) Cut as in into two pieces
2a) Cut as in cutting drugs which would be mixing things together
or
2b) Cut as in cutting a tape which could be assembling in a different order
or
2b2) Cut as cutting from one scene to another - the two scenes are next to each other or even co-mingled depending on the type of cut used

I thought of cut, but I think that would be stretching it. None of those meanings really mean combining or joining. The cutting in cutting drugs means to adulterate with another substance, which is added, sure, but only by subtracting an equal volume of the drug. The 'cutting' still means taking away, cutting down (the original substance) and not adding.

How about tup?

It means both facilitating copulation between sheep and castrating them. That would satisfy both critera wouldn't it?

Absolutely. Strike is another: striking is an effort, and it's also refusal to work.

But for a three-letter one, how about hit? Celebrated success/offensive blow.

That'd be as in "I fought with my sister over who got the window seat on the airplane ride" vs. "I fought with my sister against the kids next door when they wanted to play in our yard."

Note that the OE wið meant 'against'. The word for 'with' was mid, as in midwife, someone who is with the woman.

And this?

take on:

3. transitive verb: adopt something: to acquire or display a different character
Her voice took on a kindlier tone.


4. transitive verb: oppose somebody or something: to oppose somebody or something in a competition or fight
took on the city council

This is 2 of about 5 ways to use this verb. Could almost mean anything.

Ta-tra-ra-la-ta-dah! (Rousing fanfare)

The three letter word meaning both separate and adhere is HEW.

To hew branches from a tree.

To hew to the tenets of your political party.

Good one! And, unlike cleave, both meanings come from the same OE verb, heawan.

Your first post did not say that it had to be a three-letter word.

This from clarences Second post:

Hint: the third word has three letters.

Hew is so like cleave, what is it about sticking and splitting? Are there more of these?

In the meantime, how about 'sack' - to annex (a city) / to dismiss (an employee)?

'sack' - to annex (a city)

Sack means 'to pillage (a city)'. Unlike hew, they are two different words with different etymologies, which happen to be homonyms.

I know that which is why I said "your first post did not say that it had to be a three-letter word". He changed the rules after my guess.

The first post asked for two other words besides cleave that had the same opposite meanings (i.e., to separate and to adhere) without specifying how many letters they have. Then I revealed CLIP as the second such word, and then gave a HINT that the third word I had in mind had three letters. Who knows, there may be others of unspecified length that also have these same opposite meanings.

I still reckon TUP fits too.

I guess it would, for anyone who had too intimate a knowledge of sheep.

Just thought you'd get in before I mentioned you, didn't you olly?

FTR, the fertilization involved in faldage is fertilization of the soil by means of the of the sheep's manure.

Ewe know it. Us kiwis like to Shear! Thought I'd ram the point home. I wouldn't want to pull the wool.

All I can say to that is baaaah!