Dictionary

contronymous en · ADJ

Etymology

From contronym + -ous.

Meanings

1. Of or being a contronym.
   • Largely consigned to the hors champ, the skin flick that is being projected seems to function merely as a pretext for cruising. Such a configuration indeed recalls the writing of Guy Hocquenghem, who similarly conceives of the screen as a “protection-prétexte” that, to adapt a Cavellian pun, screens the secrets of the filmgoing public.⁴⁹ […] 49. […] I am also referring here to the contronymous “screen” as it is memorably evoked by Stanley Cavell in The World Viewed: Reflections on the Ontology of Film (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979), 24. 2020 fall, Jules O’Dwyer, “Coming and Going: Nolot, Barthes, and the Porn Theater”, in Discourse, volume 42, number 3, Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 272 and 280:
   • Clearly, not all polysemous lexemes are contronymous, although their senses may be mutually incompatible. 2008 May 6, Burcu I[lkay] Karaman, “On Contronymy”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 21, number 2, Oxford, Oxon: Oxford University Press, published June 2008, →DOI, →ISSN, page 182:
   • ḤANNA et al. (1997: 7) [ḤANNA, S. – ḤUSĀM AD-DĪN, K. – GREIS, N. (1997): Dictionary of Modern Linguistics. Beirut: Librairie du Liban Publishers.] quote some examples of ʾaḍdād from the Qurʾān such as the ‘contronymous’ verb ištarā meaning ‘buy; sell’. 2017, Yousuf B[sby] AlBader, “Polysemy and Semantic Change in the Arabic Language and Dialects”, in Zeitschrift für Arabische Linguistik, number 66, Wiesbaden, Hesse: Harrassowitz Verlag, →DOI, →ISSN, page 89:
   • While [Chris] Ellis proposes it as a general term, my sense of antagonym describes a subset of the larger class of contronymous or auto-antonymic words, however that might be defined. 2013 May, David-Antoine Williams, “Poetic Antagonyms”, in The Comparatist, volume 37, Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, →DOI, →ISSN, page 184:

Forms

Synonyms

contronymic