In this dark first month of the year, it seems like a good time to talk about Janus words, also known as contronyms and auto-antonyms, because January gets its name from the two-faced Roman god named Janus as well.
Words that have two opposite meanings such as “dust” (which can mean both “to add a light layer” as in “I dusted the cake with powdered sugar,” and “to remove dust,” as in “I dusted the baseboards before everyone came over for dinner,”) are called Janus words because the god Janus is usually shown with two faces looking in opposite directions, and that “oppositeness” represents the opposite word meanings.
January gets its name from the same Roman god because as the god of doorways and archways, he’s also thought of as looking into the past and the future and representing transitions such as the transition from the old year to the new year.
What are auto-antonyms?
These words are also called auto-antonyms because an antonym is a word with an opposite meaning. For example, “wiggly” is an antonym of “still.” A wiggly baby is the opposite of a still baby. Most words can have lots of antonyms, not just one, so “thrashing” is also an antonym of “still.” A thrashing baby is also the opposite of a still baby.
When you add the prefix “auto,” which means “self,” you get “auto-antonym”: a word that is its own antonym.
‘Sanction’: Approve and punish
“Sanction” is a common example. A few years ago I told you that the Associated Press had sanctioned the use of “hopefully” as a sentence adverb, meaning that it’s OK to write a sentence like “Hopefully, Squiggly saved some chocolate for the rest of us.” That meant the Associated Press put its stamp of approval on such sentences, but if I had written that the Associated Press sanctioned writers it found using “hopefully” in this way, it would mean it had punished its writers—taken action against “hopefully” instead of supporting it.
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