The Two Faces Of English Words

In the year 1666 a great fire swept through London and destroyed more than half the city, including three quarters of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Sir Christopher Wren, the original designer of the Cathedral and perhaps the finest architect of all time, was commissioned to rebuild the great edifice. He began in 1675 and finished in 1710, a remarkably short period of time for such a task. When it was completed, Queen Anne, the reigning monarch, visited the Cathedral and told Wren that his work was "awful, artificial and amusing." Sir Christopher, as the story goes, was delighted with the royal compliment, because in those days awful meant "full of awe, awe-inspiring," artificial meant "artistic" and amusing, from the muses, meant "amazing."

That was 300 years ago. Today, the older, flattering meanings of awful, artificial and amusing have virtually disappeared from popular use. Indeed, the general rule of language is that when a single word develops two polar meanings, one will become obsolete. Occasionally, though, two diametrically opposed meanings of the same English word survive, and the technical term for these contrarians is a contronym. More popularly, they are known as Janus-faced words because the Greek God Janus had two faces that looked in opposite directions.
Here are two sentences that will solidify your understanding of how Janus-faced words work:

"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 and the stars are out, they are visible. When the lights are out, they are invisible.
Here are some contronymic sentences that show how words wander wondrously and testify to the fact that nothing in the English language is absolute:
with. alongside; against: a. England fought with France against Germany. b. England fought with France.
clip. fasten; separate: a. Clip the coupon to the newspaper. b. Clip the coupon from the newspaper.
fast. firmly in one place; rapidly from one place to another: a. The pegs held the tent fast. b. She ran fast.
bolt. to secure in one place; to dart away: a. I’ll bolt the door. b. Did you see the horse bolt.
trim. add things to; cut away: a. Let’s trim the Christmas tree. b. Let’s trim the hedge.
dust. remove material from; spread material on: a. Three times a week they dust the floor. b. Three times a season they dust the crops.
weather. withstand; wear away: a. Strong ships weather storms. Wind can weather rocks.
handicap. advantage; disadvantage: a. What’s your golf handicap? b. his lack of education is a handicap.
commencement. beginning; conclusion: a. Beautiful weather marked the commencement of spring. b. She won an award at her high school commencement.
hold up. support; hinder: a. Please hold up the sagging branch. b. Accidents hold up the flow of traffic.
keep up. continue to fall; continue to stay up: a. The farmers hoped that the rain would keep up. b. Damocles hoped that the sword above his would keep up.
left. departed from; remaining: a. 10 people left the room. b. Five people were left in the room.
continue. proceed; put off: a. Let’s continue negotiating. b. The judge decided to continue the case.
critical. essential; opposed: a. Her speech was critical to her campaign. b. He was critical of her speech.
flush. Flush the dental floss down the drain. b. Flush the quail from the bush.
blow up. expand; destroy: a. Let’s blow up the photograph of the airbase. b. Let’s blow up the airbase.
take. Steal; earn: a. He took $100 from the dresser. b. He took $100 for mowing the lawn.
wind up. start; end: a. I have to wind up my watch. b. Now I have to wind up this discussion of curious and contrary contronyms.

Richard Lederer