A quirk of the English language. Ability Vs disability (lemmy.blahaj.zone)

submitted 2 weeks ago by FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/english@lemmy.ca

5 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Am I the only one that finds it weird that in English: "your disability got worse" and "your ability got worse" mean the same thing even though the words disability and ability effectively means the opposite thing, ie. Are antonyms.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago

Also inflammable is NOT the opposite of flammable.

I’ll see myself out…

[-] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 1 points 2 weeks ago

Now flammable and inflammable...

this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025

3 points (71.4% liked)

English usage and grammar

417 readers

10 users here now

A community to discuss and ask questions about English usage and grammar.

If your post refers to a specific English variant, please indicate it within square brackets (for instance [Canadian]).

Online resources:

Cambridge English Dictionary
Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus
Gilman's Webster's Dictionary of English Usage. This is a great and witty reference about usage, its history, and its controveries

Sibling communities:

!english_esl@lemmy.ml

Rules of conduct:

The usual ones on Lemmy and Mastodon.. In short: be kind or at least respectful, no offensive language, no harassment, no spam.

(Icon: entry "English" in the Oxford English Dictionary, 1933. Banner: page from Chaucer's "The Wife of Bath's Tale".)

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

pglpm@lemmy.ca

pglpm@mander.xyz

pglpm@lemmy.sdf.org