Contraries

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Distinct entities or concepts that are opposite or mutually exclusive in nature
2. pairs of opposing ideas that cannot coexist or be true simultaneously
3. elements that engage in direct opposition or conflict with each other

Etymology: "Contraries" is the plural of "contrary," and the noun sense here, meaning pairs of opposed ideas that cannot both hold, grows directly out of the adjective's sense of "opposed" or "against." The word's deep root is the Latin preposition "contrā," meaning "against," which gives the English word its built-in idea of standing face to face with something. That Latin base was "contrārius," meaning "opposite" or "opposed," formed from "contrā" with the adjectival ending. It passed into Old French as "contraire," and English took it in as Middle English "contrarie," borrowing the French form in the same shape it had in Latin. The Latin root of opposition is preserved almost unchanged, so the word has kept its sense of confrontation for centuries. In the plural noun, "contraries" moves from a single opposed thing to a set of opposed pairs, so the idea is no longer one thing against another but two conflicting claims that cannot both be true at once.

Synonyms: opposites, antitheses, counterparts, reverse, inverses