WTF, English?

[luzula]

Why on earth does the word "sanction" mean both "official permission/approval" and "penalty for disobeying a law"? Those are almost opposite meanings...

Comments

[jjhunter]

If it helps, here's what Webster's 1913 dictionary has to say:

Sanction

Sanction \Sanc"tion\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Sanctioned}; p. pr. &
vb. n. {Sanctioning}.]
To give sanction to; to ratify; to confirm; to approve.

Would have counseled, or even sanctioned, such perilous
experiments. --De Quincey.

Syn: To ratify; confirm; authorize; countenance.

Sanction \Sanc"tion\, n. [L. sanctio, from sancire, sanctum to
render sacred or inviolable, to fix unalterably: cf. F.
sanction. See {Saint}.]
1. Solemn or ceremonious ratification; an official act of a
superior by which he ratifies and gives validity to the
act of some other person or body; establishment or
furtherance of anything by giving authority to it;
confirmation; approbation.

The strictest professors of reason have added the
sanction of their testimony. --I. Watts.

2. Anything done or said to enforce the will, law, or
authority of another; as, legal sanctions.

Syn: Ratification; authorization; authority; countenance;
support.

The verb form seems like exercising will, law, or authority to make something official or formally recognized (with all the positive connotations thereof), whereas the noun form gets at how the exercise of will, law, or authority can received as positive or negative depending on whether the recipient person or body is acting according (or not according) to the exerciser's will, law, or authority — if they are, they're treated like an extension of that authority and sanctified (made sacred / fixed / valid), vs. if they're acting against, that will, law, or authority is turned against them to enforce their obedience / recognition of that authority as binding on them.

[jjhunter]

See also 'sanction' according to the Online Etymology Dictionary — here it's suggested that the 15th century sanction (noun) "confirmation or enactment of a law" --> 1778, sanction (verb) "confirm by sanction, make valid or binding" --> 1919, sanctions (noun pluralized) in international diplomacy, in the sense of "part or clause of a law which spells out the penalty for breaking it" --> 1956 sanction (verb) "impose a penalty on".

[luzula]

Thank you! I did want to look it up in the 1913 Webster Dictionary but had lost the link (I know you linked to that dictionary in your journal in the first place...).

Anyway, it doesn't look from other dictionaries like there's such a division in meaning between the noun and verb forms:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sanction
The noun form there seems like it can be used for both approval and penalty. Interesting that according to that dictionary it can also be used for "a mechanism of social control for enforcing a society's standards" or "a consideration, principle, or influence (as of conscience) that impels to moral action or determines moral judgment", so that the impulse can come from within or from one's social surroundings. I've only heard it used for approval/penalties from "above", so to speak.

But I do like what you write in the last paragraph of your first comment; it makes clear to me the connections between the two meanings, with lovely writing besides. : )

[jjhunter]

Aw, thanks. And I will always be happy to link & proselytize about
The dictionary your dictionary could spell like. :oD

[luzula]

Oh god, that gives me weird images in my head of anthropomorphized dictionaries on white horses!

I'm on a pun

[jjhunter]

I have it, it's an app with deliciously dicty diction for that language you love. Look again, the definitions are now hyperlinked.

:oD

(Now I really want an icon of an anthropomorphized dictionary on a white horse!)

[sabra_n]

I recently took a Sporcle quiz about English words that have opposite meanings like that. That language is an awesome nonsensical rigmarole.

[luzula]

Oops, late reply! What other words like that are there? Anyway, I guess these kinds of quirks are the result of the language having a history.

[desireearmfeldt]

Yeah, I always find that one particularly bizarre.

[luzula]

See interesting discussion in the DW post. : )

[lyr]

Probably because it was used in late Middle English to mean "ecclesiastical decree," which could of course be either a decree for or against something.

[luzula]

Hmm, that makes sense. Also, see interesting discussion in the DW post. : )

[primroseburrows.livejournal.com]

"Citation" has a similar thing. A traffic ticket is a citation, and so is an award for bravery. wtf?

[luzula]

Huh, that's weird--I did not know that a traffic ticket was also called a citation. Yes, also a strange one.