…when i was in second grade i wrote a book report on chocolate fever, in which the climax involved the protagonist taking vanilla pills, which were so obviously the opposite of chocolate to my eight-year-old perspective, but which no adults with whom i discussed the book found at all obvious…
I seem to remember a youtube video from years ago explaining how things can be opposites in different ways, like glue is the opposite of scissors because of the use, red is the opposite of blue because of what they represent, etc.
The wiki article lists a few categories like gradable words that exist on a spectrum (hot/cold), complementary or binary pairs with no spectrum (entrance/exit, moral/immoral), and relational types that only make sense in a certain context (teacher/student).
Yeah, like think about opposite words that immediately come to mind for certain categories. If you think of the opposite of sweet, do you think sour, or maybe bitter? But in another context, the opposite of any taste is bland/tasteless. Same with emotions, where the opposite of love is commonly thought of as hate, but you could also say that any feeling has its opposite in indifference. Something can be sweet and sour, or you can have love and hate together, but you can’t have a sweet bland thing, or a loving indifferent emotion.
Stuff like this interests me because it strikes at the heart of what we all take for granted in day to day thinking, but if you just slightly alter the lens you have something completely different and new.
Now I think about it, I’d seen it on this comedy version of Dragon’s Den with Andy Hamilton and Reginald D Hunter, but the real-world thing is probably more interesting!
In no logical way does cat being the opposite of dog make sense. It’s just a typical association because there was always a stronger cat vs dog stereotype in media as I was growing up. I learned that cats and dogs don’t get along, are mortal enemies, etc. This of course isn’t true, but it’s overly portrayed in media that way.
huh, for me it only makes sense in the case of cat people vs dog people because they’re the most popular pets and most people prefer one over the other
If dog is not the opposite of cat, then why did everyone immediately know the answer is dog? Hmm 🤔
…when i was in second grade i wrote a book report on chocolate fever, in which the climax involved the protagonist taking vanilla pills, which were so obviously the opposite of chocolate to my eight-year-old perspective, but which no adults with whom i discussed the book found at all obvious…
The adults were wrong. Vanilla is obviously the opposite of chocolate.
And they go good together
I seem to remember a youtube video from years ago explaining how things can be opposites in different ways, like glue is the opposite of scissors because of the use, red is the opposite of blue because of what they represent, etc.
The wiki article lists a few categories like gradable words that exist on a spectrum (hot/cold), complementary or binary pairs with no spectrum (entrance/exit, moral/immoral), and relational types that only make sense in a certain context (teacher/student).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opposite_(semantics)
I’ve never thought this hard about this before and I’m finding myself suddenly glad that other people have. This is really neat.
Yeah, like think about opposite words that immediately come to mind for certain categories. If you think of the opposite of sweet, do you think sour, or maybe bitter? But in another context, the opposite of any taste is bland/tasteless. Same with emotions, where the opposite of love is commonly thought of as hate, but you could also say that any feeling has its opposite in indifference. Something can be sweet and sour, or you can have love and hate together, but you can’t have a sweet bland thing, or a loving indifferent emotion.
Stuff like this interests me because it strikes at the heart of what we all take for granted in day to day thinking, but if you just slightly alter the lens you have something completely different and new.
Now I think about it, I’d seen it on this comedy version of Dragon’s Den with Andy Hamilton and Reginald D Hunter, but the real-world thing is probably more interesting!
Yeah, it’s the opposite in different perspectives kind of. Totally agree.
I didn’t. I was like huh there is no opposite of cat, then read the title, then got even more confused… How does anyone think the answer is dog?
In no logical way does cat being the opposite of dog make sense. It’s just a typical association because there was always a stronger cat vs dog stereotype in media as I was growing up. I learned that cats and dogs don’t get along, are mortal enemies, etc. This of course isn’t true, but it’s overly portrayed in media that way.
huh, for me it only makes sense in the case of cat people vs dog people because they’re the most popular pets and most people prefer one over the other
because it is. that’s why cat people are the opposite of dog people.
Exactly. Cat people are rational and considerate of their neighbors.
What’s the opposite of possum people.
Because I want a pet possum.
a negdiff
Honey badger shadow beings.
edit 0: words
edit 1: that is an incredible band name
The opposite of cat is “inside-out cat”.
No, thats still a cat.
You’re thinking of antimatter cats.
antimatter cat is the only acceptable opposite of cat
Up nocat
I laughed like a little kid at this