Thing Possibly Not To Do Today: bridle.

Here's a lovely contranym, that is, a word which means its own opposite.

Think about it: if you bridle your passions you're reining them in (ooh, look at that! An unmixed metaphor! What is it with people and horses?), but if you bridle at something that's been said to you then you are displaying scorn or indignation (though in a silent and non-violent way).

Still, I suppose that if your first instinct upon being insulted was to hit your interlocutor over the head with a meat axe, then that might well require some bridling in both senses, mightn't it?

Fortunately other passions are available for pursuing at full gallop, whether it be for Matisse, Meatloaf, macrame, mountaineering, moths or Mercedes.

Enjoy them at full throttle if you can.


photos by Eadweard Muybridge 1904

Thing Possibly Not To Do Today: bridle. This word comes from the Old English brigdels and is related to bregdan, which means both to move suddenly and to draw together, and is the origin of our word braid.