Yes, contranyms are single polysemous words, specifically containing contradictory or contrary meanings. Homonyms like (a) bear and (to) bear are discrete accidentally orthographically identical words.

I hereby sanction Robert Earl's clarification.

-Tim

I think a lot of people mispronounce this word, or think it is pronounced bumpkiss (with an 'm').

And here's even more from World Wide Words on beans.

-Tim

Could Latin barba (beard) be too far removed?

-Tim

With discussion of raising the national minimum wage here in the US, my mind drifted lately to the origins of this word... wage (v.) c.1320, "to pledge, deposit as a pledge," from O.N.Fr. wagier (O.Fr. gagier ), from wage (see wage (n.)). Meaning "to carry on" (of war, etc.) is a...

The term virgin, especially as applied to human females, has various nuances depending on the place and historical period. Some (especially those who share some of Athena's purported views) define virginity asa state of completeness in oneself, independent of male attachment. If I remember correctl...

...had to specify sweet tea in the capitol of the Confederacy!? :lol: That's exactly what my wife says about the ordeal, as we now refer to it... :wink: Back to lollygag, though, the 'lally' pronunciation sounds distinctly northern-US to me. Native Southern drawl would probably render the term lull...

Lived in the South all my life, albeit North Carolina. (I'll excuse the 4-year stint in Richmond as an excursion to the nether-regions, since if you wanted sweet tea you had to specifically ask for it, and there were some places that *gasp* didn't even serve it.) Never heard it pronounced 'lallygag'...

I was wondering if there could be any relationship between flocculent and flock ... but apparently they are not. flock (n.) O.E. flocc "a group of persons," related to O.N. flokkr "crowd, troop, band," M.L.G. vlocke "crowd, flock;" not found in other Gmc. languages, per...

Here ya go... Single midi file 104kb.

And the Wikipedia article where I found it is a gem, too.

-Tim

Meaning: To severely reprimand or chastise.

Hmm... Shouldn't that be chastize (at least here in the US)?

-Tim

For some reason I think of New York (the city) and Chicago when I envision someone saying 'smarmy'. Could it be that the term is more likely used there than in other US locales? Oh, and I could hear Frazier Crane and his brother Niles using that word easily... but then, they did have a British maid....

He used this word as one of his anagram clues in that book, the one made into that movie.

You'd almost have to be Da Vinci to figure out that code.

-Tim
(I couldn't resist!)

I can't hear or read the word 'enigma' without thinking of Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations ... The story is told of how Elgar, returning home from giving violin lessons, sat down at the piano and, to unwind, began improvising. Alice commented favourably on the tune that emerged and Elgar responded ...

I have been extremely busy at work, and traveling to boot... And I'm really not sure when my schedule will reach some sort of normalcy.

However, I do believe the 100-200 users online probably represented 150 or more... shall we say, non-people?

-Tim

They probably just scrambled to put something together last minute...

-Tim