I am in NEED of an autoantonym for the word Community. Can anyone HELP?

You could make it easier for your WordCraft friends to help if you'd tell us WHY you need this.

Thanks.

And what is an autoantonym? How does it differ from an antonym?

Welcome, Eno! I hadn't heard of autoantonym either, but apparently it's a word that can have opposite meanings. There are some examples in that link, and we've talked about others here. I will search for a relevant thread.

Eno, I am not sure what you are in need of, though, considering the defnition. Every word doesn't have 2 opposite meanings; I don't think community does. Or am I misunderstanding what you are after?

Your request stimulated my curiosity, Eno.

Today I have learned that words like cleave have different and opposite meanings, and are called autoantonyms.

The auto part of autoantonym means "self."

Unless you can find some different and opposite meaning for "community," let's say that an autoantonym for community is an oxymoron.

Okay?

Okay, I found a thread which lists some of these words. Interestingly, Tinman said that the term for a word with 2 opposite meanings is "contranym." In looking up "contranym," I found that indeed it means any word that can be its own antonym. Apparently, there are 4 words that mean this, at least according to Webster's New Millennium Dictionary of English (2003-07). The other 2 are "antilogy" and "enantiodrome."

BTW, Eno, you started the same thread twice, so I deleted the other thread. Thanks for the good question! I am now off to look up "enantiodrome" and "antilogy."

I found 1 entry for "enantiodrome," and it merely said "contranym." (I also found that "contranym" can also be spelled "contronym.") "Antilogy," however, is defined as "contranym," but also as "A contradiction between any words or passages in an author. --Sir W. Hamilton." (Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1996, 1998.) Therefore, it doesn't seem that "antilogy" is as clear a synonym for "contranym" or "autoantonym."

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I don't think community does. Or am I misunderstanding what you are after?

I agree. But what I suspect Eno is seeking is a synonym for community that is an autoantonym.

And thank you for clarifying what this particular words means. I can see that I shall have to consult Philology Pete to see what he has to say on the matter!

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But what I suspect Eno is seeking is a synonym for community that is an autoantonym.

Yes, I understand. But I don't think there is one, is there?

Best I can come up with is "public". As a noun, it means "the common people", but as an adjective it usually means "owned/operated by the government". Theoretically, of course, in a democracy, the government is the people ...

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Originally posted by arnie:
Best I can come up with is "public". As a noun, it means "the common people", but as an adjective it usually means "owned/operated by the government"*. Theoretically, of course, in a democracy, the government is the people ...

* Apart from "public house", or "pub", of course. Though the British government did nationalise the Carlisle Brewery, and ran it, with its tied pubs, for many years. I thought I'd get that in before Richard.

It wasn't bad beer, actually. And it was the first time I had seen a metered beer engine, which the Carlisle brewery were probably ahead of the rest in using.

It was actually quite a good system, comprising a glass cylinder set horizontally on the bar. When a half was required, the bartender would press a switch and a piston would move from one end of the cylinder to the other, forcing the beer from the tap (faucet). For a pint he pressed it again and the piston returned to its starting point. More accurate than a traditional beer engine and with the advantage that you could see the condition of the beer before it was served.

I haven't seen the system for years and doubt it now exists.

I first saw it in a Jennings' country pub in the Lake District (just south of Carlisle). They were very proud of it; before then they drew the beer straight from the barrel into pitchers, which they then used to pour out the pints.

Fortunately Jenning's is still brewed. I must remind myself of it next Thursday!

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
Welcome, Eno! I hadn't heard of autoantonym either, but apparently it's a word that can have opposite meanings.

To that list I'd add "trim" and "sanction."

"cleave" is from two different Old English verbs: clēofan "to split" and cleofian "to adhere".

Regardless of their respectively deviant history, the two words "cleave" and "cleave" still look alike to me.

How about organism

1. An individual form of life, such as a plant, animal, bacterium, protist, or fungus; a body made up of organs, organelles, or other parts that work together to carry on the various processes of life.
2. A system regarded as analogous in its structure or functions to a living body: the social organism.

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Originally posted by jerry thomas:
Regardless of their respectively deviant history, the two words "cleave" and "cleave" still look alike to me.

They are differentiated in the past tense - cleave "to split": past cleft, clove or cleaved, past participle cloven, cleft or cleaved, from the Old English strong verb clēofan, clufon, clofen.

cleave "to stick": past and past participle cleaved, from the Old English weak verb cleofian.

Yes, Myth, I think "organism" is a good one.

Arnie, I am not so sure about "public." I don't think of the government as being that different from the common people. I wonder if it might be thought of differently in England because of your royalty system.

I can see, though, that there are a lot more autoantonyms than I'd realized.

I am still intrigued by the word "antilogy."

Well, I innocently came across one today while at work. Our lawyer had made an oversight. I looked up the word to be sure I wasn't being too critical in my report, and I found these 2 contradictory definitions:

~ an omission or error due to carelessness; lack of proper attention

~ watchful care

Thread revival

I read a column in QT, from the Chicago Sun Times, the other day, and he is definitely on our wavelength. First he mentions all the words that we've mentioned here for a word that has opposite meanings, including autantonym, contranym, contronym, antilogy, enantiodrome. He then says, "Choose your favorite. QT is confident the list it complete. It comes from language experts who are responsible for the oversight of our usage."