All the men in the world are either honest or not-honest. All the substances in existence are either organic or inorganic, etc.
It will also be seen from this list that the contradictory of the positive form is not always indicated by using the prefix. Honest and dishonest, or agreeable and disagreeable, are not contradictory terms. In the case of agreeable and disagreeable, there seems to be the middleground of absolute indifference. For example: the music of the orchestra is agreeable while the humming of the enthusiast back of me is decidedly disagreeable; but as to the noise upon the street, it is neither agreeable nor disagreeable as long practice has made me indifferent to it.
When there is any doubt as to the terms being contradictory, the safest plan is to prefix “not” or “non” to the positive form.
Terms which oppose each other but do not contradict are said to be opposite or contrary terms. The following list illustrate opposite terms:
| hot | cold |
| cool | warm |
| less | greater |
| wise | foolish |
| bitter | sweet |
| soft | hard |
| tall | short |
| agreeable | disagreeable |
All these terms admit of a medium. In the case of hot or cold, for example, a substance need not necessarily be either. It may be warm or cool.
Terms seem to be contradictory when it is a matter of quality, but opposite when it is a question of quantity or degree.
11. PRIVATIVE AND NEGO-POSITIVE TERMS.
A privative term is one which is positive in form but negative in meaning. Such words as blind, deaf, dumb,dead, maimed, orphaned, are privative terms, in that there is no negative prefix or suffix and yet they denote the absence of certain qualities. “Blind,” for example, is positive in form, but denotes absence of sight.
A nego-positive term is one which is negative in form but positive in meaning. Such terms as invaluable, unloosed, immoral, indwell, are nego-positive because, though they have negative prefixes, yet they possess a certain positive meaning. “Invaluable,” for instance, does not mean not-valuable, but very valuable.