Contronyms

I guess I’d best admit it right up front, contronyms was the title of a Jeopardy category. As a teacher I’d heard of a bunch of nyms, including but not limited to synonyms (words that mean the same thing like lukewarm and tepid), antonyms (words with opposite meanings like hot and cold), and homonyms (words that sound the same but have entirely different meanings like blew and blue). I guess the main thing to notice here is that the nyms all have something to do with words and their meanings and the same is true of contronyms. Contronyms are words with two meanings, and these two meanings are the opposites of each other, like left, which can mean left as in gone (think Elvis has left the building) and left as not all gone (think there is one cookie left in the cookie jar). Another favorite of mine is off, because off can mean off or on like in the following. He turned the lights off (off as in off). When the window broke, the alarm went off (off as in on).

Being in St. Pete in December is almost like a contronym. 80 degrees and I’m going to a t-ball game tomorrow. Now I just need a word for this happiness with no contradicting meaning, I’m just happy.