What is the opposite word of "not"?

Isn't that rule based on the fact that you can't split infinitives in Latin?
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That's not its only justification. Splitting infinitives often muddles matters, and clarity is a good.

You can break the rule, like any rule, if you know what you are doing - but this example is of a bad breaking. It's likely that "not skating", in the apparent sense of active refusal or prevention, is not what the writer used to do. Notice how adopting either of PJ's alternatives clarifies the problem of negating the statement.
 
Athelwulf said:
I figured that after I read Fraggle's post. I just wanted to hear it from PJ to be sure. Isn't that rule based on the fact that you can't split infinitives in Latin?
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Indeed it is. Even the venerable Elements of Style by Strunk & White, which according to its detractors has not been updated since Latin was a living language, admonishes us not to campaign against the split infinitive in English.

In the early days of public schooling in England, Latin was a required course and most of the instructional material was in Latin. This was of course due to the fact that in the previous era virtually all scholarship was performed in Latin. The material was dutifully translated into English, and this worked tolerably well--except when it came to instructing people in the use of English.

Latin grammars were translated verbatim and all of the paradigms were carried forward. Some of the results were so laughable that they are still remembered, such as the "declension" of an English noun:

Nominative: the boy
Genitive: of the boy
Dative: to the boy
Accusative: the boy
Vocative: O boy!

Latin is a hopelessly inflected language with the infinitive form expressed in a suffix: "to love" = amare. Therefore it is physically impossible to "split" a Latin infinitive. Therefore it must be illegal to split infinitives in English.

So we end up with awkward constructions like, "This publication has been revised, better to express our dedication to serving our clients."

You are all encouraged to split infinitives whenever it pleases you. English must break free from the constraints of Latin-based education!
 
The opposite of 'not' is 'indeed'.

The opposite of 'not' is not 'not', as the meaning may change.

I hope this helps.
 
krasi said:
The opposite of 'not' is 'indeed'.
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No, it's not.
Indeed merely emphasises a response.
The opposite of 'not' is not 'not', as the meaning may change.

I hope this helps.
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Indeed not.

As was mentioned over 10 years ago, the opposite of "not" is its absence.

But thanks for the thread necromancy. ;)
 
sculptor said:
http://www.rinkworks.com/words/negatives.shtml
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Some quarrels:

defenestrate - fenestration, fenestrate, fenestrated, are all "positive" words, adjectives and nouns. The lack of a common word for "throw in through a window" seems to reflect a circumstance - the deed is uncommon. That doesn't seem central.

dejected - jocular is immediate.
disconsolate - consoled is immediate.
impromptu - prompted is immediate
incessant - ceasing, ceased
incognito - recognized

et al.

More quarrels:
Apple #438: Words Without Opposites
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Incognito/recognized mentioned, and disconsolate/consoled, and incessant/ceasing
also: "What lovely Shrinky Dinks! I'm going to fenestrate them so the sun can shine through them." Describing anything as "fenestrated" or even (more technically) as "fenestrate" is standard in some circles (biology, architecture)

"deprive -- to take away from (de "away" + privare "belonging to oneself")" The word he's looking for is "privileged".
Dismantled - maintained is immediate.
Impoverished - provisioned

or reaching a bit:
incorrigible - corraled
indelible - delicate, deliquescent
misnomer - denomination
nondescript - described, describable
nonpareil - paralleled, par
unkempt - kept
unswerving - swerving, swerved
untold - tallied
unruly - ruled

And so forth. That is, we get it, but c'mon.

The commonality in the camouflaged opposites seems to be idiosyncrasy of spelling, or sometimes a vowel shift in the history.
 
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Granted, the list is only half-serious. Many examples apply a naive rule of what it means to be opposite - eg. misnomer obviously has nom as its root, so its opposite doesn't literally have to be nomer.

but...

iceaura said:
The commonality in the camouflaged opposites seems to be idiosyncrasy of spelling, or sometimes a vowel shift in the history.
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This would only be true for those that do come from the same root, and that it is simply a corruption of spelling.
eg:
incorrigible - corraled
Dismantled - maintained
Are these the same words?
 
DaveC426913 said:
This would only be true for those that do come from the same root, and that it is simply a corruption of spelling.
eg:
incorrigible - corraled
Dismantled - maintained
Are these the same words?
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No.

Incorrigible is an almost direct copy of the Latin and meant "not to be corrected".
Corraled seems to be from the Latin word "currus" meaning a two-wheeled vehicle (presumably carts as they didn't have mopeds in those days! ;)).
From this they derived "currale" as a slang word for where you stored these carts, like a garage I suppose.
And from there you get to the Spanish word corral meaning ring, or pen, for animals etc.
So when you get corraled you get herded into this metaphorical pen etc.

Dismantle is from the French meaning to shed off a cloak ("des" meaning away, "manteler" meaning to cloak).
Maintain is originally from the Latin "manu tenere" meaning to hold in the hand.
 
Syzygys said:
I always have a problem negating "used to". As in I used to skate on the lake in the winter, when I was a child.

How do you say the opposite of it? I don't mean "I never skated..." because I occasionally did, just saying that it didn't happen oftentimes? I guess it would be "sometimes I skated..." but that doesn't sound as a pure negative...
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^^^
As a child, I often skated on the lake in winter.
As a child, I sometimes (or rarely) skated on the lake in winter.
As a child, I didn't skate on the lake.

Used to does not say anything you are not saying without it.

<>
 
DaveC426913 said:
Indeed! I was just thinking of such a list myself recently. Thanks!

Two independent thoughts crossed paths:
- defenestration (can you fenestrate someone?)
- deploy (if I douse my sail, am I ploying it?)
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^^^
Fenestrate - having small window-like perforations or transparent areas

Ploy - maneuver or stratagem. utilize.

<>
 
"Not" is a function adverb, and that function doesn't need to have an opposite word. If I just had to identify a word that is roughly the opposite of "not," I'd say "extant" (though that's an adjective) or "existentially" be opposite words for "not."
 
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