“Take a pass”: New contronym just dropped.

Richard and I were working on the Bayesian Workflow book, I had an idea for an example to include and volunteered to write it up, and Richard suggested I “take a pass” on it. Then we realized that “take a pass” has two opposite meanings: “Do it” and “Skip it.” Which reminded me of something we discussed several years ago, that “sanction” is one of those funny words with two nearly completely opposite definitions. According to dictionary.com, the first definition of this verb is “to authorize, approve, or allow.” But “sanction” also is used in the opposite sense, to mean “punish.” Similarly, the noun can either mean “permission” or “penalty.” It can get confusing at times, to read that some behavior is being sanctioned.

Richard said that in German there are many such words with opposite meanings; they are called Janus [two-facing] words. In English they are called contronyms; here are wikipedia and Merriam-Webster, which includes a fascinating story of the derivation of the word “fast.” The wikipedia entry for Contronym is in 13 languages, including German but not French.