New Yorker article on how we sometimes contradict ourselves with a word, and I thought you linguistic types might enjoy. I love the idea of Janus words or contranyms.
Does "classy" count? In its current usage, it almost always means the opposite. Does a permanent case of sarcasm change the meaning of the word?
Akin to "Don't tell me he did that," no?I was trying to think of other contranymic words or figures of speech, and then I thought of, "(Astounding/joyous/scandalous item here), really?! Shut up!" IOW, go on and don't leave anything out.
Does "classy" count? In its current usage, it almost always means the opposite. Does a permanent case of sarcasm change the meaning of the word?
There must be a linguistic term for when a word or phrase is so completely taken over by sarcasm that it comes to mean its opposite. There is a term for a word going from a positive meaning to a negative one (like "awful") but specifically through a mode of behavior like sarcasm... wouldn't that be fascinating! (Not sarcastic)