Ambiguous words

For no particularly good reason … I am ‘collecting’ ambiguous words, and would welcome contributions from the forum:

To get things started, here are two of my favourites:

Oversight

Deduction

… and before anyone asks what this has to do with Model Engineering

both Model and Engineering are high on the list

MichaelG.

Can you clarify what you mean by ambiguous?

Yes

.. next question please

MichaelG.

by way of pre-emptive clarification …

”open to more than one interpretation; not having one obvious meaning.”

MichaelG.

I'm detecting ambiguous ambiguity here

gay ? (couldn't we have the word back by now?)

For anyone connected with engineering, perhaps the most salient ambiguous word is "boring".

Lead is one of my favourites. Interestingly I was thinking of it before reading this thread. The context:: would it be wrong to hit the dog with the lead pipe while he is still on the lead.

Fear not, he has long since realised that my verbal and implied threads amount to nought.

Pero

And yesterday you led him toward the lead pipe on his lead, but today you lead him toward the lead pipe on his lead.

Precision is another one. .To one model engineer it means microns and microscopes. To another it means a felt pen and ruler. To me it means within a thou. Within tenths of a thou is high precision. Within a few thou is "close enough for bush work" and anything over 10 ten thou is roughing it.

but today you lead (van) him toward the lead (ice gap) on his lead (reins) to look for the lead (metal)

"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it.” - Moses Hadas

The most misused work is 'organic'

Billet
Drift
Draft
Draught
Stem
Stern
Radical

pgk

..Oft wondered why the guard's van isn't in the vanguard or at least riding shotgun..

Also add 'jig' to the list above.

pgk

Edited By pgk pgk on 22/04/2022 06:47:59

.

Nice to see your boring head is active, Bill

MichaelG.

.

P.S. __ [more seriously] ‘salient’ is a good one, thanks 

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 22/04/2022 07:15:37

sophisticated

Yes, beware the sophists.

And I had many a boring day at work, but few of them in the machine shop.

Following on from J Hancock's post lacking innocence, and allowing my nose to become a salient into the subject, I would suggest that pretty much all words are ambiguous as they evolved to have meaning in context both with other words, sentences, time and place. The message is the whole thing not just individual words. However it is amusing to follow the late Barry Cryer in taking things literally to extract humorous meaning. For example the private medical company thet advertised "We Operate on your Doorstep"

;o)

regards Martin

And I will be fulsome in my praise of it.

Liers favourite: Category/Categorically deny

&

"There is no Evidence" to support/show

Sorry, felt I needed to indicate the context of useage

John

Edited By DMB on 22/04/2022 08:23:20

Perhaps the most egregious instance in engineering terms (by a factor of 40) is "mil", which puts the potential errors in "gallon" and "ton" to shame.

Brian G

Hi there, all,

Almost on-topic:

Whenever I say 'Now then' to spur myself on to the next task, my wife responds with 'That's a tortology, you know!'.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostlt!

I could value your work. To spend a penny. A penny for your thoughts.

The phrase that irritates me is the by-line (buy line?)  the local Spar shop uses. "There for you", They aren't there, they're here and not for me but for their profit.

pgk

Edited By pgk pgk on 22/04/2022 08:45:20