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English is such a peach.

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PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca
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showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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It’s bullshit that the opposite of “impeachable” is “unimpeachable” instead of “peachable”

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the_stat_man@lemmy.world
20 points

These are called orphaned negatives and English has loads of them. A great article about them is here: https://stephenliddell.co.uk/2021/03/17/a-gruntled-look-at-orphan-negatives/

As a slight tangent, a similar peculiarity in English (which I don’t know of a name for) is where you can use the opposite words for similar actions, e.g. you can chop a tree down and then chop it up.

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BehindTheBarrier@programming.dev
8 points

Reminds me of folding cardboard boxes. If you are taking a flat piece and make a box of it, are you folding a box or unfolding the cardboard. Or both. And when you do the reverse, you do the same, do you not?

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kurtrude@lemmy.world
6 points

Not exactly the same, but that also reminds me of autoantonyms or Janus words. The word dust can be used to describe adding dust or removing dust, for example.

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fakeman_pretendname@feddit.uk
5 points

Great link! I love the little story in there.

I actually use “shevelled” alongside many other words which to my mind “should logically exist” - for example, at the weekend I dismantled and then remantled a wall in my garden.

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the_stat_man@lemmy.world
3 points

Good one, and you now have a mantled wall!

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PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.caOP
4 points

Contronyms is another great one. English is so tuitive.

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