Math for Engtlish Students.

[s1m0n]

The word "temper" (I muse) is one of those weird english words that are capable of simultaneously meaning something and its exact opposite, such that the statements I have a temper and I have no temper are identical in meaning.

[Cork]

Worse, consider the effect of dropping the article "a", to create immediate ambiguity: I have temper.

[mutepointe]

consider the effect even dropping "have" I forget what part of speech that is, I've been out of school a long time.

I temper.

[Nanohedron]

"Math for Engtlish Students."

I was done with this thread at the title.

Okay, okay. I''ll play. "Sanctioned" is another two-edged word, as it gets used in the media, anyway: it can convey either "proscribed", or "supported". Sometimes you don't get enough context to know what the heck they mean.

"Temper" is one of those words that I think became a popular back-formation of sorts to indicate a "bad temper" as contrasted with a "good temper". If we might go with Merriam-Webster on the subject, the word "temper" itself - as a noun - refers more to something or someone's condition due to influences. But, I use the colloquialism "He has a temper" - meaning "he's a fly-off-the-handle type" - without thought at all, myself. Usus loquendi, and all that.

...the statements I have a temper and I have no temper are identical in meaning.

I don't recall ever having heard the second one, ever. Maybe it's a local thing. Were I to hear it hereabouts, I would think it to be a hifalutin' if odd way of maybe saying, "I have no character." Hmm. BUT: one way you'll hear it here is: "He doesn't have [much of] a temper," which, opposite to your meaning, s1m0n - and "doesn't have a" as opposed to "has no" can definitely count with idioms including this case, hereabouts - would instead mean he's a pretty affable sort, or, at least - A ZOMBIE. People born here, or those deeply assimilated, simply just would not normally say, "He has no temper," and mean what I meant, or the other, for that matter. I would consider a person rendering the idiom so to be definitely from somewhere else, and I would have to ask what s/he means, and might probably get sneered at for being a yokel. Seen that sort of bad manners happen before.

[highwood]

The title did it for me as well: ... not only not an math student ...

[Nanohedron]

... not only not an math student ...

Don't troll me, sucka.

[s1m0n]

"Temper" is one of those words that I think became a popular back-formation of sorts to indicate a "bad temper" as contrasted with a "good temper". If we might go with Merriam-Webster on the subject, the word "temper" itself - as a noun - refers more to something or someone's condition due to influences.

I suppose. Literally, it's an ossified metaphor*; ie, one which has sailed beyond metaphor & over the cliché event horizon, and simply become the word for it's referent. Temper in this context is the heat-treatment process that blacksmiths use to both harden and toughen steel, so that it can keep it's edge without shattering every time you smite someone with it.

A badly-tempered sword will shatter in use, whereas a well-tempered piece of metal will not. The original 'anger' metaphor, then, was bad temper[/b]. An angry man is like a badly tempered sword, liable to fly to pieces at inopportune times. However, familiarity and the process by which the metaphoric sense of the word becomes much commoner than the literal definition has lead people to drop the adjective in any context in which bad temper is not being contrasted to good.

* A phrase I just now made up, and like a great deal.

[dubhlinn]

The word "temper" (I muse) is one of those weird english words that are capable of simultaneously meaning something and its exact opposite, such that the statements I have a temper and I have no temper are identical in meaning.

Nice thought...

Try it out sometime in the company of English people...especially women...

That's when the crack starts.

In my humble experience, it is better to walk away from those who don't have a temper, rather than sit down with those who do.

A lovely phrase though..

Slan,
D.

[Innocent Bystander]

"Cleave" is another one. It can mean "split in two" or "immoveably fixed to" something.
Your cleaver can cleave a man in twain and your tongue can cleave to the roof of your mouth.
It's enough to make you lose your temper.

[s1m0n]

"Cleave" is another one.

It is, indeed.

[MTGuru]

Not exactly the same issue ... But in the US, a driveway is where you park your car, and a parkway is where you drive your car.

[avanutria]

Don't forget the regional variant, "I have dis temper"...

[Joseph E. Smith]

Don't forget the regional variant, "I have dis temper"...

That can easily be avoided if vaccinated at an early age.

[Bothrops]

Hebrew is worse..

For example, for saying that nobody is here, I should say something like "Nobody IS NOT here'' and I ask to myself.. if ''nobody is not here'', so, EVERYBODY IS!!

Or another example.. if I want to say that I've never played soccer I should say ''I have never NOT played soccer''
If ''I have never NOT played soccer'' that means that I've ALWAYS played it. It's crazy!!!

Is like double negative, and when I was a child I learnt that - x - = +.

The misteries of the languages

[MTGuru]

Hebrew is worse..

But isn't Spanish similar? "Yo no tengo nada" does not equal "Yo tengo algo", etc.