Sound and Sense, 6

SOUND AND SENSE:

Our English dictionary has in it many words whose sounds and meanings can … confuse. In this next series of doggerel, I’ll be writing about several sorts of such words.

The first—the contronym: a word, says the Oxford English Dictionary, that has “two opposite or contradictory meanings.”

Earliest published use: 1962.

cleave verb

1. to adhere

2. to separate

I vowed that I would cleave to her—

She vowed she’d cleave to me.

But later on she grew so bored

She wished she could be free.

And so she found a way that she’d

Be single once again:

She bought an axe and wielded it—

And cleaved my head in twain.

So in my grave I contemplate—

I guess it’s like a salve—

The ways that English words are weird—

Split meanings they can have!