The Roman God Janus and Auto-Antonyms   by Tarot Conway

in Education / Languages    (submitted 2011-07-31)

The Roman god Janus was the god of doorways and of beginnings. The word 'January', the first month of the year, derives from his name, as does the word 'janitor', which originally meant 'gatekeeper'. Janus was often depicted as having two faces looking in opposite directions, just as a gate looks in two directions; more philosophically, these faces were described as looking towards both the future and the past.

From Janus comes the phrase 'Janus-faced', meaning 'two-faced', or hypocritical. The expression 'two-faced' itself is a fairly self-explanatory image of duplicity, which comes from an earlier expression, the earliest example of which is in the 14th century Romaunt of the Rose, which refers to 'Two heedes in one hoode at ones' (two heads in one hood at once).

But Janus himself has come to be a byword for opposites. Which brings us to auto-antonyms, which are also known as 'Janus words'. An antonym, of course, is a word which means the opposite of another word. The antonym of 'light' is 'dark'; the antonym of 'tall' is 'short', etc. And 'auto-' comes from the Greek for 'self': an 'automobile' is a vehicle which moves itself ('mobilis'='movable' in Latin) rather than with the assistance of horses or human pedalling; an 'autobiography' is a biography of oneself. How, then, can there be such a thing as an 'auto-antonym' - a word which means the opposite of itself?

There are, however, a few words which can, to greater or lesser degrees, be understood as meaning the opposite of themselves. It is not uncommon for two words with different meanings to be both homographs of each other (spelt the same) and homophones (pronounced the same) - tree 'bark' and a dog's 'bark'; 'quail' the bird and 'quail' the action; a river 'bank' and a 'bank' for money. What is less common is when those two words are spelt the same, pronounced the same and mean the precise opposite of one another.
An example of this is the word 'weather'. You can 'weather' the elements, which means you withstand them. Or you can be 'weathered' by the elements, which means you do the opposite: you are worn away by them.

If 'sanctions' are imposed on a country, it is restricted in some way, but to 'sanction' something refers to allowing it. You can 'cleave' things together, or you can 'cleave' them apart. You can move 'fast' or be stuck 'fast'. You can 'bolt' something down, to keep it stationary, or you can 'bolt' from something.

These fascinating 'Janus words' all, to some degree, have two faces looking in opposite directions; two heads in one hood at once. And Janus himself, the god who looks to the past and to the future at the same time, his name has remained in the language and even integrated into new phrases, like 'Janus-faced''; 'Janus words', even as the original meanings of 'January' as Janus's month, and of 'janitor' as a gatekeeper, have been lost. He has both weathered time and been weathered by it.

About the Author

Tarot Conway is the web designer behind Spellzone a spelling course with hundreds of pages of English teaching about spelling and vocabulary with spelling tests and spelling games.