22. Words That Are Their Own Opposites

How is it possible that a word like 'oversight' can refer to both watchful care and an inadvertent error? Why didn't someone stop this and bring order to the English language? Today we discuss the linguistic oddities known as contronyms. (Or auto-antonyms. Or Janus words. There's a long list.) Then, we'll try to untangle the strange and twisting path of the words 'iniquity' and 'inequity.'Hosted by Emily Brewster, Neil Serven, Ammon Shea, and Peter Sokolowski.Produced in collaboration with New England Public Media.Transcript available here. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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On words with two faces.

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This episode was published on January 6, 2021.

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