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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
As you may deduce from the preceeding posts this place is like a pot of coffee "Chock Full Of Nuts!" For non-USers -- that's a real brand of ground, canned coffee. Hang around, and keep posting, juju! For encouragement, just look at anyone's early posts (access by clicking on name and looking in Profile) and you'll discover we have all perpetrated screaming " Yet Another Rehashed Topic and garnered many jibes. Just jump in and have fun! 
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Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 41
newbie
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newbie
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 41 |
It may have come up before, but that's not to say the last word's been said on the subject. Whether one cleaves to cleave as a contranym, or would cleave cleave from the contranymic body, so far as I can see no-one on this Board has addressed Tsuwm's question some threads back, namely, are there any other members of the cleave-class.
Cleave, we agree, is two different words, with different etymologies. To cleave as to adhere apparently descends from the German 'kleben'. To cleave as to split seems to be related to the Greek 'glyphein'. How beautiful, two separate words, from different stocks, evolving independently down through the millenia into morphologically identical yet semantically opposed lexical items. It is only, by the way, in the present tense form that this is completely true. The past of 'cleave' in
the sense of to adhere is 'cleaved' or (archaically) 'clave'. The past of 'cleave' in the sense of to split is 'cleft' or 'clove' or 'cleaved'.
Now let's look at let. In the tennis sense, meaning 'to obstruct', it descends from Middle English. In its opposite sense, it is cognate with the German 'lassen', sharing a Gothic ancestor, letan.
Common contranyms are many, but these are the only two I know of in this special class.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Welcome aBoard, Rusty! Cool, about let. That must be one
of our idioms that is harder to grasp--I know of a couple of non-native-English-speakers who have used it almost in that Middle English sense, which we don't do (normally).
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Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 41
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newbie
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 41 |
Surely Jackie you've seen Sampras come crashing down with one of his 200 mph serves, only to have it catch the tape, pop up, and hear the linesman cry (in Middle English), ' LET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' 
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
I know of a couple of non-native-English-speakers who have used it almost in that Middle English sense, which we don't do One of the delights of living in a constitutional monarchy is the survival of archaic forms of language. On the inside of my passport it says: "The Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief in and over New Zealand requests and requires in the name of Her Majesty the Queen all whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance." I have loved the phrase "without let or hindrance" ever since I first saw it.
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Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 41
newbie
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newbie
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 41 |
In reply to:
I have loved the phrase "without let or hindrance" ever since I first saw it
Me 2 MQ. In fact, that's probably what infatuated me with contranymia in the first place.
My latest acquisition is 'wood', as in 'He couldn't see the wood for the trees'.
In passing I note that this particular (wood-)saw is all too apt on this Board, but it's not its appositeness that interests me, but its oppositeness.
Does it mean 'so focussed was he on the tree, he failed to notice its context, the thick thicket', or is it rather that 'so focussed was he on the tree, he failed to notice its essence, the organic matter within'? Or both?
In other words, is 'wood' what a wood's made of, or is a 'wood' what's made of wood? 
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
Does it mean 'so focussed was he on the tree, he failed to notice its context, the thick thicket', or is it rather that 'so focussed was he on the tree, he failed to notice its essence, the organic matter within'? Or both?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Around here the saying is : "He can't see the forest for the trees"
Pretty straightforward.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Around here the saying is : "He can't see the forest for the trees" My guess would be Rusty was indulging in the elegant variation, oh, Ideal Cæsar's Wife 
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
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, Ideal Cæsar's Wife
Please, folks! I am an unremarried widow.
And one of Irish descent who's late husband was also of Irish descent to whom I was ever faithful.
Closest I've come to Italian/Roman is studying the bel canto method of singing which I do love! It seems to add a special, wondeful dimesion when I sing Irish songs.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Just referring to another thread, wow, in which I praised you and endured the ridicule of others {carrying off my ® and © balls....)
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