Sunday, August 28, 2016

Sound and Sense, 85


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. grisly (adj.): causing horror or fear; very shocking
2. grizzly (adj.): a form of grizzled (having grey hair)

It was a grisly sight she saw—
Remains of her dear bro-in-law.

He’d run into a grizzly bear—
He hadn’t known the bear was there.

The awful bloody grisly sight
Affected her—her hair turned white.

And so she was a grizzly soul,
Who never was again quite whole.

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