A contranym is a word that can also mean its opposite. Examples include dust (to remove, or to place as in 'dust for fingerprints'), clip (clip to one's pants or clip off the end), fast (moving fast or stuck fast).
I heard a bit about these over the weekend and what usually happens is that one of the meanings goes out of style and disappears. There is no real point to this other than I thought it pretty interesting.
Does anyone else view the word "scheme" pejoratively? That is, whenever I hear the word I think of an underhand plot, not a plan. So when I hear pension scheme, I think 'people getting ripped off'. Am I alone here?
1 comment:
Yeah, I agree that 'scheme' doesn't come off as a positive word but I think that may be a U.S. thing. When I was in global corporate actions we used to have to change all the Netherland "dividend reinvestment schemes" to "dividend stock options" for the US investor audience. We didn't change anything about the corporate action itself -- just changed the title. We had to do this because the word'scheme' raised red flags in the minds of US investors
Good example about how knowing your audience is important.
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