[nulbyte]

If you think two different words having different meanings is difficult, wait 'til you hear about contranyms! English is full of words like these, where context is needed to understand the meaning.

If something is fast, it moves quickly or not at all. Cocktails can be garnished, but so can wages. Sales or trade of a product could be sanctioned by one country, but sanctioned by another.

I generally think it is a good thing to communicate clearly. Sometimes that means using words differently to explain something. Other times, that means using words the same way as others. I think this is a case of the latter.

Also, I think the idea of "native speaker" is a bit of a red flag. There are plenty of people that speak English from birth but are utterly unintelligible, and there are plenty of people that speak English as a second language who speak more clearly than those.

[thfuran]

>wait 'til you hear about contranyms! English is full of words like these, where context is needed to understand the meaning.

It is, unfortunately, possible for more than one thing to be bad at a time.

[matt-attack]

When I'm at a restaurant and I don't see anything I like, I just order something "off the menu".

When I'm at a restaurant and I like everyone I see, I order something "off the menu".

[scoot]

The first is "off-menu", and the second (for which I don't think you meant "everyone") is "from the menu". So, no...

[fshbbdssbbgdd]

People really do say they “ordered something off the menu” when they found the item on the menu. I believe I could usually distinguish the two meanings if I heard a recording. If the item is not on the menu, the word “off” would be stressed.

[averageRoyalty]

In Australian english, "off the menu" is perfectly normal vernacular in non formal settings.

[balex]

So essentially you order off the menu based on your surroundings?

[JadeNB]

Something can be held fast, but I don't think it is usual English to say that something fixed is fast.

Garnishment of wages is garnisheeing, though here I'll agree "garnishing" seems to be acceptable too.

[rout39574]

Something "made fast" is perfectly reasonable usage for tying it in place.

[Riseed]

Yep. And something "made fast" is also perfectly reasonable usage for vastly upgrading its speed. "Fast" can absolutely be a contronym.

[wolfram74]

I think two-word contranyms are more concrete, like "fight together".

Oversight is a less ambiguous example of a single-word contranym.

[benwills]

I've heard "fast" as a contranym to "moving quickly," referenced as "to fast" or "fasting." ie: not eating at all.

Edited to add: Sticking with the context of food, "fasting from food" contradicts someone being a "fast eater."

[riehwvfbk]

"Fasten your seatbelt" doesn't usually mean "twirl it wildly above your head".

[BobaFloutist]

Sanction and nonplus are the most insane examples, because sometimes it's literally not possible to figure out from the context which of the two opposite meanings is intended.

[janalsncm]

> Also, I think the idea of "native speaker" is a bit of a red flag

I assume you mean “red herring”. Red flag just means a sign that something is wrong.

[krakrnews]

I sanction this comment.