"Eschew Obfuscation" - Random Musings about .NET
Stupid english trivia. I needed to look this word up today, and according to Dictionary.com (Ref: The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language), the word Terrific is it's own antonym. Whenever I don't want to tell my stepson how I really felt about a movie, I can just say it was "terrific" <grin>
You may also enjoy "cleave".
Take a hit of bimonthly as well
Actually I don't agree with this; I think you are being misled by a crappy definition. "I have a terrific headache" The word has the same meaning; it's modifying a negative situation. Eg, "I have an astonishing headache" vs. "He is an astonishing tennis player" Is astonish now its own antonym? No. The meaning is the same in both cases. Whether that is good or bad depends on the word being modified.
I was just recently listening to an Audio book where the Author used the word terrific to describe a killer. "The terrific figure chased them down the alleyway" and it just struck me as amusing that a word could have two completely opposite meanings. Astonish really only has one meaning. The headache is astonishing (amazing) in it's intensity, or he is an astonishing (amazing) tennis player. But in the case of terrific, there really are two definiitions (Well, 4...) 1) Very good or fine, and 2) Very Bad or unpleasant. Obviously, context can play a big part in it, but still.... He is a terrific tennis player really could mean is is very bad <grin>