Your New Favorite Word

Jamis and Tessa team up to discuss two different kinds of “name” words: those that sound the same as other words, and those that simultaneously mean their own opposite. How can this be, you ask? Listen and find out!

• 00:40 — Irregardless
• 02:22 — Oronyms
• 06:03 — Recreational linguistics
• 07:42 — Contronyms

• NPR article on “irregardless”
• An old sailor took up teaching. A young student bumped into the table holding the class timepiece, which shattered and cast sand and glass all over the floor. The teacher cried, "Argh, lass! Our class hourglass!"
• Sybil’s great-great-grandfather fought in the war between the states, and when he came home he somehow brought with him a fortune in silver forks and spoons, which he melted down and turned into jewelry. This displeased the air spirits, or “sylph”, who had apparently first treasured this trove. At first, Sybil kept the jewelry hidden away, but eventually decided she didn’t care what the sylph thought, and took to wearing it all. Thus, we might say that "Sybil wore Civil War silverware silver where sylph were 'ware Sybil wore Civil War silverware silver."
• “Four Candles” sketch by The Two Ronnies (YouTube)
• Word Ways
• Auto-antonym (Wikipedia)
• List of contronyms