Conflict is central to creative writing, as of course, are words. I can’t remember why I looked the word liege up this morning. I think it was something I heard on the radio. I already knew perfectly well what it meant. It means lord or master, as in my liege. Except that when I did look it up, I found that as a noun it can mean a person under a feudal tenure, a vassal, a loyal vassal, a subject, and a lord or superior. As an adjective it can mean free, or under a feudal tenure. So liege has meanings in direct conflict with each other.
I decided to see what other words might have contradictory meanings and found a useful site with a list of seventy-five such words and discovered that they’re called contronyms. I will mention just a few. Liege is in the list of course. Bolt can mean to secure, or to flee. Cleave can mean to adhere, or to separate. As a golfer I was amused to find handicap, which in golfing terms is an advantage applied to ensure equality, but otherwise means a disadvantage preventing equal achievement. I’ve been playing golf almost since I could walk, and I’d never really thought about that.
The advice on the dailywritingtips website is to be careful to provide context when you use a contronym, so that the context makes the meaning clear. I shall certainly follow that advice in the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. However, I have the next meeting of Milktown Writers coming up soon, and the writing prompt this month is hedgerow. I was thinking of trying to write a poem, and now I think I might try to weave some conflict in with a few contronyms. Well it’s an idea for a bit of writing exercise and entertainment.