Sunday, July 31, 2016

Sound and Sense, 57



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. do (noun): the first tone of the diatonic scale (do-re-mi, etc.)
2. doe (noun): a female animal (deer, rabbit, etc.)
3. dough (noun): a mixture of flour and a liquid (water, milk)

She really was a charming doe.
I gave her singing lessons, Yo.
We started out by singing “do ...

She’d far more talent than a crow,
And soon we made a ton of dough.
I’d start the song—and she could go!

And we were rich (the money flow!)—
So I stayed home (she traveled, though).
I baked a lot with sourdough.

But then, of course, here came bad luck.
She met a dude who drove a truck.
She married him—his name was Buck.

And soon I was completely broke—
This situation ain’t no joke—
While she just fawned upon her bloke.

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