Comments on: Darling, you look positively pulchritudinous. OW! No, that's a GOOD thing!

Question: Darling, you look positively pulchritudinous. OW! No, that's a GOOD thing!

Jon Mitchell — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 02:15:52 -0800

What words do you know which have a strong dissonance between their form and meaning?

I only just discovered that "pulchritudinous" means "beautiful", and not, as I had assumed from its very unlovely sound, some horrible portmanteau of, possibly "sepulchural", "putrescent" and "platitudinous". It just seems like it couldn't possibly be regarded as a compliment by anyone, regardless of what the dictionary says.

Are there words you're aware of you intuitively assumed had a meaning or association very different from their true meaning?

By: alexei

alexei — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 02:26:30 -0800

Darling, you are the pinnacle of muliebrity! Clearly from the distaff side of the family.

By: null terminated

null terminated — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 02:35:06 -0800

nonplussed

By: tepidmonkey

tepidmonkey — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 02:39:25 -0800

Crepuscule.

By: misteraitch

misteraitch — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 02:47:14 -0800

I don't think I'm the only one to have at first assumed that coruscating meant something like scathing or corrosive rather than sparkly.

By: DevilsAdvocate

DevilsAdvocate — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 03:18:26 -0800

inflammable (a synonym, not an antonym, for flammable)
hoi polloi

By: rob511

rob511 — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 03:22:28 -0800

apiary
lapidary
Liebfraumilch
puissance
riparian
uxorious
venial

By: goo

goo — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 03:26:29 -0800

Noisome means smelly, not loud.

By: thebrokedown

thebrokedown — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 03:32:36 -0800

Callow. I somehow associated it originally with "callous." It took me many years to realize my mistake because for some reason, context never really provided me with much to disabuse me of the idea. I often have seen "callow youth" as sort of a stand-alone phrase that the author assumes I am not too dumb to understand. Yeah, I'd think. Those damn youths don't care about nothin'!

It's late/early. I hope that made sense.

By: ravcasleygera

ravcasleygera — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 03:33:48 -0800

I can never believe "salubrious" is a good thing: healthy, nice etc. It sounds like the opposite to me.

By: that girl

that girl — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 04:28:37 -0800

Everyone always thinks "puce" is more of a chartreuse than a mauvey purple.

By: Vic Morrow's Personal Vietnam

Vic Morrow's Personal Vietnam — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 05:02:31 -0800

callipygian (and possibly steatopygic, although I think you could imagine massive buttocks when looking at that word.)
phlegmatic
rhotacism (if only because, like lisp, it's designed to enrage the people it applies to)

And I'm sure this list of odd words will have many examples of what you're looking for.

By: christinetheslp

christinetheslp — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 05:27:14 -0800

Glabrous always makes me think of squishy or puffy, even though I know it means hairless or bald.

By: bricoleur

bricoleur — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 05:53:38 -0800

Carminative

By: h00py

h00py — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 05:55:09 -0800

'Dilation' always seemed to me to be a word that sounded more like something closing in rather than the opposite.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 06:03:02 -0800

When I was younger, I thought befriended meant betrayed.

Having a dearth of something sounded like a lot to me as well, but it means very little.

I heard "I'll cut you with a blunt knife" so often in stories as a kid I assumed at some point it must mean sharp, but it definitely does not.

By: Rock Steady

Rock Steady — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 06:12:12 -0800

mathowie, you're thinking of "defriended," obviously.

"Enervate" sounds like it should mean "energize," but it actually means "to weaken or lose energy or strength."

By: broady

broady — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 06:17:14 -0800

My pick would be meretricious. It sounds like "full of merit", but in fact means "plausible but false or insincere."

By: humannaire

humannaire — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 06:32:23 -0800

Cunnilingus. Fellatio. Masturbation.

By: exlotuseater

exlotuseater — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 06:39:02 -0800

sinecure.

By: ethorson

ethorson — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 06:39:03 -0800

Spendthrift, which sounds "thrifty" to me but actually means "spendy" (someone who is reckless with his money).

By: Steven C. Den Beste

Steven C. Den Beste — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 06:44:34 -0800

I've always thought it interesting that priceless is the antonym of worthless.

By: yeti

yeti — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 06:45:37 -0800

I used to think "Much to my chagrin" was a good thing.

By: greta simone

greta simone — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 07:03:58 -0800

phlegmatic

By: extrabox

extrabox — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 07:08:10 -0800

Sweetbread.

By: phoenixy

phoenixy — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 07:12:07 -0800

A spendthrift is the opposite of a thrifty spender. Confusing as heck.

By: lsemel

lsemel — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 07:18:44 -0800

Temerity sounds like it means 'timid', but it actually refers to reckless fearlessness and daring.

By: Steven C. Den Beste

Steven C. Den Beste — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 07:23:12 -0800

Not so much a dissonance as a complete red herring: "metastasis" doesn't refer to a semi-stable state, even though that's what it seems to say.

By: d13t_p3ps1

d13t_p3ps1 — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 07:27:11 -0800

i always thought felony sounded too close to melody to REALLY mean "serious crime". It flows too nicely.
Unfortunately, no one will change the dictionary for me.

By: flibbertigibbet

flibbertigibbet — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 07:27:32 -0800

Flaccid, when pronounced with the hard k.

By: kandinski

kandinski — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 07:39:45 -0800

Neither "long"n or "monosyllabic" describe themselves, in fact quite the opposite: they describe each other!

By: planetkyoto

planetkyoto — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 07:40:16 -0800

I have to nominate "pithy," because it has always seemed to me that it should mean "something that was meant to sound intelligent but which actually is dimwitted or obvious." That mey be just me, however.

By: hermitosis

hermitosis — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 07:42:41 -0800

Tantamount is just as grandiose-sounding as paramount, but it means "equal to" instead of "superior to". And is there a -muont word that means "lower than"?

By: hermitosis

hermitosis — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 07:46:10 -0800

Also, riffing off of phlegmatic, "sanguine" and all its variations disturb me a little, because the word sounds nice and its meaning is usually cheerful and enthusiastic, but the definition always mentions blood over and over, which is the image I associate with the word.

By: Ms. Saint

Ms. Saint — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 08:13:12 -0800

Potable. As close to portable as it is, it certainly should mean something similar.

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 08:17:25 -0800

Donnybrook, a suburb of Dublin, has a beautiful name but a bad reputation.

By: Partial Law

Partial Law — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 08:29:11 -0800

Chlamydia sounds like some kind of flower.

By: dzot

dzot — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 08:33:40 -0800

Fecund.

And you probably don't want ot use the word "niggardly" around someone who doesn't know the meaning.

By: Eringatang

Eringatang — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 08:49:01 -0800

secular

By: bruce

bruce — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 08:53:47 -0800

"cleave" usually means cut in two, as with a meat cleaver, except in the bible, where it means stick together "a husband should cleave to his wife."

"impregnable" sounds like "capable of being impregnated" but actually means incapable of being penetrated or impregnated.

"secrete" can mean hide away, or ooze forth, take your pick!

looks like another commenter beat me to "inflammable".

By: bibliowench

bibliowench — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 08:54:14 -0800

It took me the longest time to realize that "hirsute" meant "hairy." I think I associated it with "astute" and assumed it meant "wise."

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 08:59:35 -0800

someone

By: lisa g

lisa g — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 09:03:36 -0800

"Limpid" seems like it should mean dull or nonenergetic, to me, but it just clear or transparent.

(Great question. It's like synesthesia for words ...)

By: lisa g

lisa g — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 09:04:01 -0800

*just means

By: charris5005

charris5005 — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 09:18:22 -0800

Just an aside: "flammable" was actually a coined word for use as a warning sign (as in on tanker trucks) because so many people thought the correct form, "inflammable," meant "not flammable."

By: melissa may

melissa may — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 09:21:13 -0800

"Baleful" always seemed to mean sorrowful to me, but it means menace.

I was also confused by dearth in the same way as mathowie, because I agree it sounds like a lot instead of a little (possibly because it rhymes with earth). I also always thought puce ("puke") was green.

Prepositions give me no end of trouble. I never related them to actions or directions until I was well out of childhood. I still have to catch myself before I say I'm going up somewhere that's south or somesuch thing.

I hate the word matriculate. I relate it to mater, not matrix. So, I think of it as I do alma mater, and relate it to graduation, not entrance.

"Provincial" always sounded sophisticated to me, in part because Provence is known for great food and wine and is a high-end tourist destination.

Christ, it's a wonder I can speak the language at all. (Yet cleave never confused me. It's one of my favorite words.)

By: 517

517 — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 09:22:08 -0800

Classy

By: fiercecupcake

fiercecupcake — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 09:32:13 -0800

Factitious gets me every time.

By: not that girl

not that girl — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 09:35:51 -0800

"fulsome" is a good one, though if you look at its etymology, its meaning has shifted and is shifted, or perhaps it means two things--one good, one bad--at the same time

By: The World Famous

The World Famous — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 09:54:50 -0800

Soporific

By: iamkimiam

iamkimiam — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 10:06:51 -0800

livid
The original definition was "pale, ashen, dull and colorless", but now that's changing because people are taking it to mean "angry, reddish, vibrant", as in "I was livid pissed, my face was so red."

By: SoftRain

SoftRain — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 10:08:36 -0800

Envisage always sounded like it should have something to do with visages, but it doesn't.

Obviate sounds like it should mean "make obvious" but it acutally means "remove the need for."

By: librarina

librarina — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 10:09:52 -0800

"secrete" can mean hide away, or ooze forth, take your pick!

Really? I thought the "hide away" definition was a whole bunch of people making the same typo or back-formation, and that it was actually spelled and pronounced "to secret."

Wordnet has both definitions, but the "hide away" meaning is in past tense, so I can't tell if they're correct or not.

(languagehat?)

By: iamkimiam

iamkimiam — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 10:13:56 -0800

Chlamydia sounds like some kind of flower.
posted by Partial Law

"No, I thought I was giving you flowers, my bad."

By: Askr

Askr — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 10:22:05 -0800

Fungible sounds like something fun and squooshy like a Teletubby, or maybe a friendly mushroom. But no, it is the cold, soulless, interchangeability of a commodity. As an office drone, for example, I am completely fungible with the next drone. And mom had always told me I was a snowflake.

Anodyne sounds like electron-charged robot skin, not soothing or relaxing.

I don't know how it happened but somehow I grew up thinking inertia meant momentum, sort of its opposite. I still have trouble remembering it correctly, even though I can use inert as a reminder.

Picayune sounds like a slow-moving spiked animal in the tropics, or maybe a sour dish involving pecans or mustard rather than describing something small and trivial

A poltroon should be some sort of Army troop carrier or Marine landing craft, or maybe that military vehicle from GI Joe and I guess real life that makes bridges over small rivers. But no, it means a coward.

By: so_necessary

so_necessary — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 10:36:02 -0800

To me "fecund" means something like "rotting" or "nasty" ("the air was full of fecund odours") rather than "fertile" or "productive"

By: trim17

trim17 — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 10:38:34 -0800

"Proscribe" sounds like "prescribe," but it means "to condemn".

"Promulgate" means "to bring into law" or "officially announce," but I never associated anything legal to it.

By: bluesky43

bluesky43 — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 10:40:54 -0800

superscillious. super silly? nope!

By: saturnine

saturnine — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 10:59:49 -0800

I can't get it through my head that "concur" means to agree, instead of disagree/contest. I think it's because I associate the "con" part with negativity? Every time I hear/read the word, I have to remind myself it's a good thing.

By: kindall

kindall — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 11:20:15 -0800

"Askance." Up until last year I thought "looking askance" at someone meant you were giving them a questioning glance ("ask-ance"). Turns out it just means you're looking at them sidelong ("a-skance"). This is one of those words I'd read but never heard spoken, or else I might have figured it out sooner. (Like the ever-popular "misled.")

A couple of years ago, it was "redux," which I always thought was a fancy way of saying "reduced." I therefore thought "Apocalypse Now Redux" was a bizarre title for a version of the film longer than the original. Fortunately, such an obvious contradiction spurred me to actually look the word up for the first time.

By: SPrintF

SPrintF — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 11:23:39 -0800

"Masticate" sounds likes something one would not do in public.

By: pullayup

pullayup — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 11:24:18 -0800

Refulgent!

By: hangashore

hangashore — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 11:29:04 -0800

wherefore (means why or therefore, not where)

"Masticate" sounds likes something one would not do in public.

Then osculating is right outta the question.

By: Jabberwocky

Jabberwocky — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 11:31:57 -0800

"Upheld" never feels right for me, as in "the complaint was upheld". I feel that this means that the complaint was rejected, whereas it means the opposite. I think this comes from a feeling that the complainant is putting the complaint onto the complainee, and that upholding it means that the person judging this is lifting the complaint away.

I concur about concur, too.

By: flying kumquat

flying kumquat — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 12:55:55 -0800

When I first heard the word "melena", I thought it sounded lovely. I'd even heard it used as a female name (with a different meaning in Spanish/Portuguese). Unfortunately, as a term in medical English, it means black, tarry, foul-smelling loose stool. Yuck.

By: JimN2TAW

JimN2TAW — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 13:00:53 -0800

toothsome

By: painquale

painquale — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 13:04:54 -0800

Here's a different take on your question. These words answer the "what words do you know which have a strong dissonance between their form and meaning?" part:

Monosyllabic
Unwritten
Long
Foreign
Plural

Or any other heterological word.

By: schyler523

schyler523 — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 14:04:08 -0800

Cromulent was the first thing to come to mind...

By: Mapes

Mapes — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 14:20:28 -0800

Frabjous, to me, isn't associated at all with what Lewis Carroll intended (fabulous/joyous) but instead sounds negative.

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 14:23:20 -0800

"Behead" should be "dehead."

By: molybdenum

molybdenum — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 15:04:27 -0800

I remember reading a story, possibly apocryphal, about an immigrant couple who moved to America without speaking much English. They had a daughter soon after they arrived, and named her after the most beautiful-sounding English word they had heard: diarrhea.

By: Brian B.

Brian B. — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 17:10:53 -0800

preclude
erstwhile
fortnight
retard

By: booth

booth — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 18:37:40 -0800

I only recently learned that sleeping fitfully meant sleeping poorly. I always associated it with "fit" as in "healthy."

By: ROTFL

ROTFL — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 20:24:34 -0800

Firmament.

By: gerls

gerls — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 21:51:46 -0800

Ooooh. Is that what Baleful means?! Awesome, I learned something today then.

I always think Gelid has something to do with animals, don't ask me why. Gelding maybe? But it means Icy.

By: rleamon

rleamon — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 08:29:17 -0800

Enervate. You'd think "instill with energy" but it means "weaken."

By: kosher_jenny

kosher_jenny — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 02:27:14 -0800

Frottage. It sounds like it should belong to a much nastier act than what the word is actually used to mean.

By: DevilsAdvocate

DevilsAdvocate — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 09:03:42 -0800

I don't know how it happened but somehow I grew up thinking inertia meant momentum, sort of its opposite.

I had that problem too. I think the issue is that when used in physics, it does mean momentum (including, but not limited to, zero momentum). That is, the tendency of an object in motion to remain in motion, and the tendency of an object at rest to remain at rest.

I learned the physics definition first, and so it took me a long time to adjust to the common metaphorical meaning of the word.

And I had been misinterpreting "baleful" all the time too, until this thread.

By: fidelity

fidelity — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 09:11:15 -0800

I came in here to provide the example of pulchritude, but I see you have that covered, so I will only add that commencement and matriculation have always sounded to me like the reverse of their meanings.

By: DenOfSizer

DenOfSizer — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 20:23:40 -0800

And let us not forget, of course, "Republican" and "Democrat/ic."

By: flashboy

flashboy — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 06:24:06 -0800

A word that's already taken this path is obnoxious, which has the archaic meaning of "vulnerable", "exposed to harm". Somewhere along the way, I'd imagine, the meaning became kind of mashed together with "noxious", and we formed the meaning - objectionable, unpleasant - that we have today.

By: gleuschk

gleuschk — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 09:21:07 -0800

"Meconium" always sounded to me like a Renaissance-era stringed instrument, or possibly a 19th-c. mechanical version of the same. Sadly, it means baby's first poop.

By: Askr

Askr — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 12:20:22 -0800

Bless you, DevilsAdvocate, for disproving my I'm Crazy theory. I DID learn that in 11th grade physics!

By: Reggie Digest

Reggie Digest — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 20:51:14 -0800

I've always thought awful/awesome to be particularly fascinating. They're antonyms and synonyms!

By: Reggie Digest

Reggie Digest — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 20:57:06 -0800

so_necessary: To me "fecund" means something like "rotting" or "nasty" ("the air was full of fecund odours") rather than "fertile" or "productive"

Manure.

By: divabat

divabat — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 00:52:06 -0800

"Puce" always seemed like a light green, like "puke".

"Metaphysics" as many people use it doesn't really have a whole lot to do with physics or science.

By: Reggie Digest

Reggie Digest — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 23:20:29 -0800

Treacle. Brown and sticky, yes, but sweet? I wouldn't have thought so.

By: thebrokedown

thebrokedown — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:30:31 -0800

Approbation. Perhaps it's due to the embedded "probation."

By: CunningLinguist

CunningLinguist — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 08:30:05 -0800

Decimate is one I got wrong for years and years. It actually means to cut something by a tenth - which makes sense if you look at the word - but it sounds so utterly destructive.