Monday, July 25, 2016

Sound and Sense 51



We’re moving next to the homophone: a word pronounced the same as another but differing in meaning, whether spelled the same way or not, as heir and air. So … contronyms are words that have contradictory meanings (sanctiion = approve and disapprove; homophones sound alike but to not mean the same—and often are not spelled the same, either.

1. coarse (adj.): having a rough quality; rude or offensive
2. corse (noun): corpse
3. course (noun):  the path or direction that someone moves along; a series of classes about a particular subject  (Verb): to move or flow quickly

His habits were a little coarse,
So he signed up to take  a course
That would improve the wicked course
Of life. For soon he’d be a corse
If evil were allowed to course
Unchecked. And so he bought a horse,
Which promptly threw him in the gorse,
Where he regretted his divorce
And, now dying, sought the source
Of discontent. But no (of course)
He failed—but left a message (Morse),
Then died, suffused with much remorse,
Regretting he’d not felt The Force.

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