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Path: utzoo!lsuc!msb
From: msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Semantic Reversals
Message-ID: <444@lsuc.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 25-Feb-85 01:46:29 EST
Article-I.D.: lsuc.444
Posted: Mon Feb 25 01:46:29 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 25-Feb-85 03:19:25 EST
References: <101@mot.UUCP> <1775@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Reply-To: msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Organization: Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto
Lines: 33
Summary: 

Some of these are not strictly reversals, and in some cases the
semantic shift may have occurred before the word got into English
rather than after.  But I think they're all interesting.

"Automobile"	- a streetcar
"Ship"	[verb]	- to transport *by ship*
"Sail"	[verb]	- what a *sailing* ship does

"Manuscript"	- document written by hand - and
"Manufacture"	- to produce by hand

"Computer"	- a person who does computations - and
"Typewriter"	- a typist

"Rival"		- pertaining to a river bank	[prime land -> conflict -> ...]
"Villain"	- what pertains to a villa	[ -> peasant -> ... ]
"Naughty"	- poor		[having naught]
"Brave"		- crooked	[related to "depraved"; -> scoundrelly ->
		  requiring courage -> ...;  in French this transformation
		  continues to the complete reversal -> good, worthy]

"Nice"		- silly	[ -> overprecise -> precise -> ... ]
"Silly"		- blessed	[ -> blessed fool* -> fool  ]
"Cretin"	- Christian	[similarly]
		* Woody Allen fans may note the German cognate "selig",
		  which still means blessed.

Except for "computer", all of these (and the signature line) are
paraphrased from Mario Pei's book "The Story of Language" (1965 ed.).

Posted by Mark Brader

	"John's house burned up, and Jim's house burned down too."