For example, “flammable” and “inflammable” both describe an object that can easily catch on fire. I can also think of “ceased” and “deceased”, both of which can mean someone or something has been brought to an end.
edit: Some people are including words that can also mean its opposite (like sanction or table), those are cool too! The more weird words, the better!
Ravel and unravel can both mean to take apart something that was knitted or woven.
Cleave
For Australians, yeah, yeah nah, yeah yeah nah, nah, nah yeah nah, nah nah yeah, all have subtly different positive and/or negative meanings, often dependent on the situation.
“egregious” means outstandingly bad or flagrant, also distinguished or eminent
Egregious is distinguished only on a negative sense
In French there is personne (someone) and personne (no one), plus (more) and plus (no more)
This is kinda the opposite to what you are asking: awesome and awful used to mean the same thing IIRC, both being something filling you with awe. Later the meanings split between positive and negative.
Same with terrible and terrific.
As a non-native English speaker, I always have to think a second extra about “terrific”, about it being negative or positive. Probably because it sound similar to “terrible”.
You’re right to think that, because that’s how both words began!
Or as an analog: horror - terror, horrific - terrific.
I often thought awful was an odd word. Surely awful = full of awe, but it is frequently used to describe things that have little to no awe.
Also I have now said the word awe too much and it looks strange.
My guess is it came about because people were using it to mean “something so bad it fills you with awe”. Like “the thing humans are doing to the environment are awful”. But then it lost its connection to awe.
That’s my guess.
deceased specifically refers to death though. ceased mean something stopped in its track. " no offense and offensive" means the same thing if the context is describing someone or something. shelled/deshelled both means shells are remove from a plant product.
It has ceased to be. It’s expired and gone to meet its maker.
Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace.
Near miss and near hit both mean a close call.
Not the original question you asked, but fits in with your edit:
Priceless and worthless are opposites
Literally means either literally or figuratively, and context doesn’t really help.
I think the word ‘unironically’ has started to fill the void left behind after the word ‘literally’ was changed to mean ‘figuratively’
Really, its a way to spot a bad dictionary.
Literally literally means figuratively, or literally, however figuratively literally only means figuratively.
Now ask a particle scientist
Can’t they are too small and I can only know either where they are or how fast they are.
I’m not sure this is correct, but I’ve heard that flammable and inflammable being used as synonyms is recent. Originally, inflammable meant able to burst into flames without a significant ignition source. Like a pile of oily rags or something that could catch fire because it was left out in the sun or just got too warm.
It sounds like it should mean something flame-proof. Like destructible - indestructible.
Yeah, adding in- as a prefix often does mean that, but it can also mean in, on, or into (among others) as a prefix or just part of the core word. And in this case inflammable comes from adding the suffix -able to inflame, a word that already starts with in- in it’s into meaning. And one definition of inflame is “to burst into flames.”
Sanction can mean a punishment or an authorization.
Came up in a DND game where a devil’s contract said the players crossing the region would be sanctioned, or something like that. Players thought it meant they had permission, fine print said they would be punished.
It means authorized decision. The decision can be a punishment.
To bone and to debone both mean to remove bones from something, typically food.
Similarly, peel and unpeel.
Hulled means either the hull is still present or has been removed.
Unpitted DO have pits, and pitted have NO pits.
Sounds so backwards. The problem is they’re referring to the verb of the word “pit”, meaning “removing the pit”. So “unpitted” means “not removing the pit”. So dumb.
The undead are dead.
suck and blow
…are opposites
“Man, that sucks.”
“Man, that blows.”
Those two phrases have identical meanings.
Except on my… Other account.
