Highly Hysterical
April 9, 2013
My theme for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge is contronyms. A contronym is a word with two or more opposite meanings, making it its own antonym. Click here to find out more about these quirky words.
 
Chloe with the letter H

For the letter H, I’m featuring the contronym hysterical, a word that conveys opposite ends of the emotional spectrum.
 
Hysterical – causing unrestrained laughter; very funny
 
~ or ~
 
Hysterical – irrational from fear, emotion, or an emotional shock
 
I thought I’d try something a little different today to illustrate the two facets of hysterical. If you have arachnophobia, I warn you, do not press play! Here’s the direct link if the embedded version isn’t working.
 

Apologies if I traumatized anyone with that spider picture. I’m still twitchy just thinking about it. I’ll also offer up apologies for my terrible “voice acting.” If I had to make a living doing voice acting, it would be a race to see whether I starved to death or died of embarrassment first – I hate being behind the mic as much as I hate being in front of the camera
 
Are you familiar with contronyms? There are other ‘H’ contronyms out there, can you think of any? Doesn’t Chloe look Heroic with her letter H?
 
cat image courtesy of Nick Reffitt/lolcats.com 
spider image courtesy of documentingreality.com
 
I’m trying a new spam solution, so if you have any issues posting a comment, please let me know using the Contact form. Thank you!    
My theme for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge is contronyms. A contronym is a word with two or more opposite meanings, making it its own antonym. Click here to find out more about these quirky words.
 
Chloe with the letter H

For the letter H, I’m featuring the contronym hysterical, a word that conveys opposite ends of the emotional spectrum.
 
Hysterical – causing unrestrained laughter; very funny
 
~ or ~
 
Hysterical – irrational from fear, emotion, or an emotional shock
 
I thought I’d try something a little different today to illustrate the two facets of hysterical. If you have arachnophobia, I warn you, do not press play! Here’s the direct link if the embedded version isn’t working.
 

Apologies if I traumatized anyone with that spider picture. I’m still twitchy just thinking about it. I’ll also offer up apologies for my terrible “voice acting.” If I had to make a living doing voice acting, it would be a race to see whether I starved to death or died of embarrassment first – I hate being behind the mic as much as I hate being in front of the camera
 
Are you familiar with contronyms? There are other ‘H’ contronyms out there, can you think of any? Doesn’t Chloe look Heroic with her letter H?
 
cat image courtesy of Nick Reffitt/lolcats.com 
spider image courtesy of documentingreality.com
 
I’m trying a new spam solution, so if you have any issues posting a comment, please let me know using the Contact form. Thank you!    

Jocelyn Rish

Jocelyn Rish is a writer and filmmaker who never imagined her cheeky sense of humor would lead to a book about animal butts. When she's not researching fanny facts, she tutors kids to help them discover the magic of reading. Jocelyn has won numerous awards for her short stories, screenplays, short films, and novels and lives in South Carolina with her booty-ful dogs.