Contronym (noun), a word that can also mean the opposite of itself, a feature more common in English than in any Indian language.

USAGE: When the media said President Trump had sanctioned Iranian oil supplies, I wasn’t sure what they meant, since “sanction” is a contronym.

In this instance, confusion is understandable, because the headline could mean the President had permitted the oil supplies to flow, or that he had prohibited them. If you get a sanction from an authority to do something, it means the former; but if you impose sanctions on someone or something, it means the latter. The word “sanction” can either refer to approval for a course of action or a penalty for disobeying an injunction. That’s why it’s a contronym.

Confused? “Sanction” is not the only case of a word that can be used to mean its own opposite. We use contronyms all the time without realising it; the most common contronym might be the word “off”, since “setting off” an alarm activates a warning bell, while “switching off” the alarm deactivates it – and both use the same “off”. If you find too many objects gathering dust at home, you can tell your maid that she needs to dust more so there is less dust (that’s not a contradiction, just a contronym!) At a party you can be told there are “just a few dishes left”, which means they remain to be consumed, while some people have left, which means they’ve gone. “Left” is even more complicated because of its political meaning – a person from the left can be sitting on the right (and vice-versa!)

When the United Nations created an in-house inspectorate and named the department the Office of Internal Oversight Services, I warned my colleagues, only half in jest, that every time the new office messed up, they could say, “hey, it was just an oversight”. Oversight is also a contronym: it can mean watchful supervision, but also an inadvertent error.

American usage multiplies the range of contronyms. A “hold up”, in the US, can either support or impede: wooden beams might hold up the ceiling, but a mugger might trap you in a hold up at gunpoint (or traffic can create a hold up on the road). Also in America, you can use bills to pay bills (what we call “notes” are “bills” in the US, so “dollar bills” can be used to settle your restaurant bills!) “Give out” is our final example: a charity can give out aid to flood victims, or an exhausted victim fleeing the floods can collapse when his legs give out.

My space has just given out, so I’ll call it a day. That’s perhaps the most common contronym of all – you usually call it a day when it’s night!