There's a suffix that's the opposite of "-genic" (as in "photogenic"). What is it? [more inside]
posted by lrivers on Jan 16, 2009 - 21 answers

Does anyone remember that Metafilter post a while (maybe a long while) back that IIRC told a story using uncommon antonyms? [more inside]
posted by xmattxfx on Sep 22, 2008 - 2 answers

If "anhedonia" is an inability to get pleasure from pleasurable experiences, is there a word or concept that describes an inability (or a diminished capacity) to be saddened by experiences usually considered "sad"? [more inside]
posted by cadastral on Nov 1, 2007 - 25 answers

Thanks to a derail in this thread, I have learned that Merriam-Webster now believes that "literally" also means "virtually." This has shaken me to the core, and seems to be evidence of the English language being irrevocably broken. I beg you to ease my soul and prove this isn't true by giving me evidence of other English words that, over time, have come to mean their own antonyms.
posted by Faint of Butt on Mar 28, 2006 - 103 answers

Wanted: an antonym for "loophole." Yes, I've spent an hour or more on Google. Sense needed: Where a loophole is an ambiguity in a law or regulation that, like a knothole in a plank, allows something to get through that should have been stopped. The term I'm looking for would describe this:

-- a state corporate/business code/law/regulation that exempts the owner/manager/director from almost all personal responsibility/liability for the actions of the business -- but that has one remaining offense for which, if the business gets convicted, the state court may hold the owner, manager or director personally liable.

The sense is one plank of the fence left standing; one tooth left in the watchdog's mouth, or something like that. It's scary where Google leads, looking for this -- into the history of how laws are made with great fanfare then eroded and dismantled and undercut to where they accomplish almost nothing.
posted by hank on Jan 11, 2005 - 27 answers

The opposite of indent is __________:
A. unindent
B. outdent
C. dedent
D. I can locate no firm etymological basis for any of the above [more inside]
posted by Danelope on May 12, 2004 - 26 answers

Does the word "paranoid" have an antonym? In other words, can there be a one-word opposite of paranoid? My guess is no since it's a defined clinical state; however since it's used casually, has an antonym evolved?
posted by mgtrott on Dec 16, 2003 - 33 answers