THE TWO-FACED TREACHERY OF JANUS WORDS

Janus words, like the Roman God Janus and the month of January, provide two views. For January one face looks at the year just passed while the other faces forward to the future. Janus words also look in two directions—opposite directions. They are an example of the flexibility I admire about English. But they contribute to the idea that the language is difficult to learn. Here are some that can really be annoying to the new user of English.

Dust. The word we all know from housekeeping is the action of removing the persistent coating of microscopic and not so tiny bits that just drift down on everything from nowhere and everywhere making the house dirty. Bakers also know this word. They dust their creations before and/or after by sprinkling them with flour, sugar or powdered chocolate, but not to make these items dirty!

Rock. We are all familiar with rocks. They are solid, hard and often heavy. We speak of being steady as a rock, un-moving and unmovable. Yet, rock also means to sway from side to side or back and forth—very movable. Good grief, which is it? It is, of course, both. It is a Janus word.

Here’s a fun one—Left, the past tense of the verb leave. If we remove you from a room, and we say “you left.” You no longer exist in the room, but have vanished, gone, leaving an emptiness or nothingness once filled by you. But in the mathematics of subtraction, the answer to the problem is the amount left. It remains. The amount taken away, the amount which actually ‘left’ is not called the left amount. So, on the one hand, the language gives you “removed” and on the other hand the answer which “remains.” The word has you coming and going. It is a Janus word.

Bound. Tie something down and it is bound, kept from moving. But hurdlers bound over obstacles in their way. Oh, good. Tied up but leaping about, like that makes sense. Are you feeling pulled in two directions? It is a Janus word. And it has a cousin, fast, meaning held stationary and also to move rapidly. It’s enough to make a person cry with frustration.

A Janus word which comes courtesy of the art of photography is screen. Before photography it always meant to conceal or provide a barrier. After the advent of photography, it means to show, broadcast. So, Janus-like, you are either hiding or blatantly showing off. Oh, dear, I just used another problem word.

Off. The one meaning we all learn early is the opposite of activated or “not on.”  But the other Janus meaning is just that—activated, as in the alarm went off. Of course, off has a bunch of other flavors that add to the confusion—the taste of something is “off” or not fresh; I am feeling off or not well or inadequate and so forth.

What is a person new to English to do?

While I enjoy the adaptability of English to make a word, new or old, suit the changing world, I must admit the choices made can be more confusing than helpful. As a native speaker, I apologize to all those new to this language and offer my profound sympathy.

For additional examples, you might check out www.mentalfloss.com. To see Janus words existing in other languages, try Wikipedia’s article on the Auto-antonym.

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#January4