Etymology -- raise and raze

Which homonyms build and destroy?

Etymology, Etymology, and more Etymology
as well as grammar, usage, euphemism, slang, jargon, semantics (meaning), linguistics, neologism, idiom, word origin, syntax, dialect, lexicon (vocabulary), diction, pidgin, synonym, antonym, homonym, cant, argot, lingo, and redundancy.

A picture of a moot game

The critically-acclaimed board game MooT consists of tough questions about the nuances of the English language.

Answer: raise and raze

It takes a village to raise a child ? but it takes a Cossack to raze a village.

Please note that these are draft questions for the board game MooT.
If you spot an error or disagree with anything I've said here,
please let me know and I'll fix it.
(the Mootguy)

Feedback

I think of myself as an amateur linguist ? I would like to have a PhD in Linguistics someday ? so my husband asks me odd-ball questions all the time about how language is used.

One day (some time before I subscribed to this mailing list) he asked me if there were 2 words in the English language that were phonetically the same (homophones) but were opposite in meaning.

Almost without thinking, I gave him raze and raise (he was not familiar with the "obscure" raze).

I also pointed out that RAYS, though not an opposite, also sounds like the other two. I am going to send him this page to prove that I'm not the only one who thinks this stuff is cool. Thanks!

x-redgilette_yahoo.com

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