A Little Word Fun

So BBFFs (Blessed Blog Friends Forever) – even those of you who are professional writers or word nerds – wanna learn something new?

I know you do!

Okay, you’ve heard of synonyms, antonyms, acronyms, and pseudonyms right? (Hey, if you respond with the meaning of all four – but please DON’T cheat and look them up – on the blog feed below, I’ll throw your name in the fedora to win a beautiful Too Blessed to be Stressed 2020 Planner! C’mon now, play fair – I want to hear your best guess if you’re not sure. They don’t have to be correct to get your name in the drawing. Let’s just have some fun!)

But wait … have you heard of contronyms?

No? Me neither, until I saw an article in Reader’s Digest!

Yep, you use contronyms every day and like me, you were probably clueless. A contronym is a word that is its own opposite. Talk about double meanings! Cool, huh?

For instance (many of the following definitions are from mentalfloss.com as found in the Reader’s Digest, 11/19 issue, but the entire last one and all the example sentences are mine … as if you couldn’t tell):

• “Cleave” can mean either “to cling/adhere” or “to split/sever.” Totally opposite. As in: After age 50, your cleavage quits cleaving vs. She chopped off the Thanksgiving turkey leg with a meat cleaver.
• “Left” can mean “departed” or “remaining.” She left the boring New Year’s Eve party vs. She’s the only diehard left. 
• To “dust” can mean either “to add dust” (as in to crop-dust) or “to remove dust” (that one time a year you rediscover the color of your furniture). 
• “Off” can mean “deactivated” or “activated” as in: I turned off the giblet gravy burner when my buzzer went off. (I wonder which definition goes for: A guy in an off-white trenchcoat offed my cousin Venny when he ran off with the Godfather’s wife.)
• “Bad” in current day vernacular means both “bad” and “good,” or sometimes even both at the same time, as in: She got her bad self down on the dance floor, oh she bad, she bad vs. He’s crazy-bad at ballroom dancing. 

Can you think other contronyms you use regularly? I’ll be tickled to throw your name in the fedora for that TBTBS Planner for every one you come up with in the reply feed below.  (Again, please use your brain, not your e-device.)

 

*Woohoo000! My new Thanksgiving giveaway is here! It’s called the Giving Thanks Giveaway!

All you have to do to enter is to EMAIL ME me three things you’re thankful for this Thanksgiving – photos are always welcome! Your name will go into my grandma’s antique gravy bowl and a winner will be chosen on Nov. 27. And just look at the prizes!

• An adorable “Thankful, Grateful, Blessed” tee
• A Too Blessed to be Stressed 2020 Planner
• The desktop model of the Too Blessed to be Stressed Perpetual Calendar for gentle witnessing
• A container of my personal choco-faves for your munching pleasure
• And, of course, a special surprise from me just for you

I’d love to post some of your entries for our entire community of BBFFs to enjoy during the two upcoming weeks before Thanksgiving, so please don’t tarry and do enter ASAP. (Again, photos are awesome; by sending a photo, you’re giving me permission to post it here on my Too Blessed to be Stressed blog unless you indicate otherwise.)

*P.S. I’ll be sending out a newsletter within the next few days so if you haven’t yet subscribed to my free newsletter, please do so now at my website DeboraCoty.com. Many thanks!

*P.S.S. Can’t resist sharing this … in the same Reader’s Digest issue containing the contronym article, right across the page in “The Worst Advice I Ever Got,” column was this hilarious quote: “An internship at the White House will be amazing on your resume!”

It was from Monica Lewinsky. BwaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa