Homonyms

or First Grade Can Only Carry You So Far

Me in 1st grade

I learned a lot of things in first grade, among them--counting with Roman Numerals, reading, and what a homonym was.  I learned from Miss Stemple, my teacher, that homonyms were words that sounded the same but were spelled differently, such as bear and bare.  Made sense and I remembered and used that definition for many years. Actually it's still the basic definition I use. That was until recently.

Ward and I were discussing an article he was reading about words that are spelled the same and sound the same, but have opposite meanings, such as dust which can mean either putting a fine powder on something or taking it off.  My curiosity was peaked with the discussion because I had never thought about these words (lets call them opps which much easier to type) as a category although I certainly knew about them. That's when I consulted Professor Google for more insight on the matter. I realized that was about as reliable as consulting Dr. Google for my medical problems, but on I forged.

First hit identified these same words with opposite meanings as homonyms. This was not quite my working definition of homonyms so I explored further. Then I learned that homonyms were a broad category with three different kinds.

Homophones: Words that are spelled differently but sound the same such as bare and bear This is what I learned is first grade
Homographs: Words that are spelled the same and sound the same, but have different meanings. Such as light and light. One for a light from a lamp and the other for something that is not heavy.
Heterographs: Words that are spelled the same but are said differently. Such as bow and bow where one is bending at the waist and the other is the result of tying something.

Homographs seemed to fit for opps, but it didn't say anything about opposite meanings.  Not being satisfied, I went a little deeper into the internet hole and found the term contronyms. Contronyms are a special case of homographs where the words are spelled the same and sound the same and have different meanings which are opposite of each other such as the above example of dust. Bingo! However, to confuse the matter more, contronyms can also be called contranyms, auto-antonyms, and Janus words.

After a mere hour of Googling around the internet I had learned that one subset of homonyms are contronyms which are words that spelled and pronounced the same but have opposite meaning.

What am I going to do with this information? Probably forget it. But I had some nice trips down memory lane while looking for it.

Disclaimer: I consulted many sites for writing this post which didn't all agree on these terms. I chose what made sense to me. Which means, kids, don't use this as a source for homework. I don't know anymore than what I learned in first grade.

But Wait, There's More:

A few examples of contronyms from DailyWritingTips.com

--Bolt: To secure, or to flee 

--Cleave: To adhere, or to separate 

--Fine: Excellent, or acceptable or good enough 

--Handicap: An advantage provided to ensure equality, or a disadvantage that prevents equal achievement 

--Hold up: To support, or to impede 

--Left: Remained, or departed 

--Put out: Extinguish, or generate 

--Rent: To purchase use of something, or to sell use 

Happy New Year!

It's here! 2020! 

There's been a lot of talk about a new month, new year, new decade for the last few weeks. Actually, there have been disagreements about whether the new decade is really beginning now or will be here next year since there never was a year zero. Whatever the case, I have not yet gotten the hang of writing 2020 as a date.

Also, there has been a lot of talk about New Year's resolutions that people are making such as the more common ones of exercising more and eating less to the less common ones such as solving the Rubik's cube one handed. Some say that you shouldn't make resolutions at all because they always fail. Others say it's bad to make resolutions because it suggests that you aren't good enough just the way you are. Have you noticed that everyone has an opinion these days?

What do I think about New Year's Resolutions? I don't know. I haven't had time to think about them yet. I'm still too busy putting away my Christmas stuff.

Annie has been helping me organize my Christmas things
 before they get put away.

Have you been doing any resolving this first week of January?

Porch Update, Weeks 7, 8

Good progress is being made even though there has been bad weather and holidays interfering with the schedule. Here are a few pictures to show the progress.

This is where we last left you. Roof trusses were being covered with sheathing, floor joists were in, and the piers were starting to get bricks around them.

Since then, the roof was shingled and an arch was built for the front of it. We are pleased with how well the new roof ties into the existing roof.

This notch at the top of the beam next to the arch will hold a beam tail, part of the trimming.

And perhaps the most important thing that happened recently is that we passed the framing inspection, so work can continue.

The electrician has begun wiring for lights and ceiling fans. Right now we have six can lights and two ceiling fans planned as well as a couple of new outlets. We may need a new subpanel to handle these. Also, the contractor is pricing some additional lighting and outlets for us now to see if we would like to add them.

The mason finished bricking the piers and poured the landing for the steps yesterday.

They have added the posts for the railing and begun wrapping all of the exposed wood in Boral board, a composite cement product that should wear very well.

And that's all she wrote.  Until next time...

Merry Christmas!

^"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth 

peace and goodwill towards men."

"...And that's what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown."

 "A Charlie Brown Christmas" 

Christmas is coming

This has been a good Christmas season. I guess they all are, in fact, if I take time to look around. Here's a little of what has been going on for the last month or so besides building a porch on the back of our house and starting a new job.

The Friday after Thanksgiving, Miss Landers, Ward, and I went to see the Eric Byrd Trio play various arrangements of the music from the Charlie Brown Christmas. I thoroughly enjoyed the show, but beforehand didn't want to go. I was quite comfortable where I was on the couch with Annie on my lap. It's a good thing that I make it a point to schedule things outside of the house or I don't think I would ever leave. The music inspired me to get a Charlie Brown door mat and it makes me smile every time I see it.

Charlie Brown and the gang are greeting our visitors.

The week after that, I had a cookie party with my work friends. I have been to cookie exchanges around this time of year, but the soul purpose of this gathering was not to exchange cookies, it was to eat cookies. Each of ten of us picked a different recipe from the Delish Insane Sweets cookbook and tried it.  We had some meatballs in a slow cooker and some milk for a little protein to balance the fat and sweet from the cookies, but basically we just ate cookies for supper. We gave reports on what we thought of the recipes, but mostly we ate various delicious cookies to our hearts content. I can't wait until we try something like this again.

The week after that, I went with my book club to a one man performance of A Christmas Carol. It is a tradition in this area and remarkable to watch as this one man makes you forget that you are watching only one person play all of the parts. However, there was a glitch. The theater lost electricity twice during the second half. We heard an interesting question and answer period under the emergency lights while they were trying to fix things, but eventually we had to leave for safety reasons. Good thing I already knew how the story ended.



And back to cookies, I've been baking some the last couple of days to take to various events. And there's been a glitch with that, also. I inherited my mother's stand mixer and have happily used it several times. However, after last night's batch of chocolate chip cookies, the beaters were stuck in the mixer. It's down to the point that we are taking the mixer apart to see what we can see. So far, no luck. They're still stuck. Good thing I still have the hand mixer that my mother gave me 35 years ago and a strong stirring arm.

The beaters are stuck.

I count my blessings that a broken mixer is the biggest problem I have today. I hope the same for you.

Until next time...