Janus Word
noun phrase

- a word that has two meanings that are opposite or nearly opposite

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ORIGIN

Derived from the Roman God Janus who is identified with doors, gates, and all beginnings and depicted with two opposite faces.

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SYNONYMS

antilogy, auto-antonym, contronym, contradictanyma, enantionymy, enantiosemy, JANUS WORD

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EXAMPLES

- bolt = to fasten, to secure (Bolt the door at night) + to flee (The cat bolted away)

- clip = to attach, to cut (Clip the pages together) + to remove (The hairdresser clipped off too much of my hair)

- dust = to remove dust (Remember to dust under the bed) + to add (Dust the cake with icing sugar)

- mean: unkind, aggressive, nasty (My maths teacher was really mean) + excellent (My wife makes mean pasta dishes)

- rent = to pay someone to use their property (We rented a chalet in Switzerland for our holiday) + to offer someone use of your property in exchange for payment (We rented out our flat when we were on holiday)

- weather = to withstand (Lifeboats are built to weather the worst storms) + to deteriorate (The west wall has weathered badly over the years)

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WARNING!

- table a topic = to discuss a topic at a meeting (in British English) + to postpone a topic at a meeting (in American English)

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PRACTICE OWAD in an English conversation, discuss something like:

“Take care with the verb ‘to table”, it’s a JANUS word with opposite meanings in the US and UK.”

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Paul Smith