Words that sounds as if they mean the opposite

[CormoranStrike]

Sometimes words are just perfect - purring is exactly right for a cat, for example.

But some are so wrong. bucolic, meaning a beautiful countryside, sounds to me like something sickly and ill.

Any others?

@CormoranStrike
As @HallyUp6 says in Australia/NZ, lucked out definitely meant out of luck. In fact we'd say we had "lucked in" if something nice happened. Same as "you're in luck today...." I can't understand how lucked out came to mean the same.

As for words that sound right:

'massive' does sound like something huge and solid
'sludge' sounds thick, oozing & disgusting

In fact Ooze is pretty graphic too

I don't like in medicine positive means you have it when positive is meant to be for a good thing.

Dr: we have the test results back.
Patient: ...
Dr: it's positive
Patient:
Dr: you've misunderstood, it's positive as in you do have that disease.
Patient:

I went on an undulating cycle once thinking it didn't sound hilly. It was very hilly

'Pococurante' sounds like something one of the Aunts would have used to dismiss a suitor to Wooster.

I have no idea where I got it from but I thought for many years louche meant silky, soft to the touch. I still think my nice silk shirts are louche in my head!

Lucid-maybe because it looks a little like liquid...I don’t know but I think it should mean confused and difficult to grasp mentally.

Lenient, for some reason it to me it sounds like it means the opposite to what it does

For me it's decongestant medication 'Actifed' sounds like a stimulant whereas it actually makes you sleep but Sudafed sounds like it will make you sleep but does the opppsite

A dearth of.

It sounds like there is plenty.

@Kollamoolitumarellipawkyrollo

Lucid-maybe because it looks a little like liquid...I don’t know but I think it should mean confused and difficult to grasp mentally.

I have the same thing with that word.

it feels like a synonym for "opaque" . I don't know why. but it feels like it shouldn't describe less clarity

*it should!!!

ffs

Avuncular is another one.

OP, when I saw the title I immediately thought of 'bucolic'.

Not a word, but a phrase... "Haste ye back" on Scottish road signs, as you're leaving a town, and meaning, "Come back and visit us soon." I used to take it to mean, "Get back to where you came from, we don't want you!"

Egregious. It sounds quite positive!

Priceless - I had a tape of a story when I was a kid that was all about the hunt for some priceless pearls that had gone missing. I has NO idea why everyone was so bothered about these worthless pearls and it wasn't until I was an adult that I twigged!

Penile - not as funny as it should be.

Bodkin - should be something little old ladies have in their sewing box although my granny could wield a stitch unpicker like a streetfighter...

Limpid. We used to be read the Just So stories, and one talks about the "great green-grey greasy Limpopo".

In my head I've confused limpid and Limpopo so have to really think to remember that limpid means clear — I think of it as silty and greasy.

For a while I thought 'benevolent' meant bad or evil. Until I started taking notice of the context it was used in 😁

Lucked out. I always think when you've had a lot of luck that you've lucked IN.

Summit. Sounds like the deep, dark, bottom of a valley and not the top of a mountain.

I never understood the less speed, more haste saying.

Also do you itch a scratch or scratch an itch?

Not a word but a phrase "a sight for sore eyes". As a child I used to think it was something so bad that it gave you sore eyes.

@kittenkipping

Sorry didn't explain- but to me, nonplussed sounds ambivalent, completely not fazed- certainly doesn't look like it means completely surprised and unsure of how to react

Well I've learnt something today!

Flammable and inflammable meaning the same thing - downright dangerous.

That's actually incorrect, they don't mean the same thing- flammable means can set fire to, inflammable means doesn't need an ignition.

Another vote for ‘hoi-polloi’ - I got it muddled up only the other week, and I’m an English teacher, fgs

‘Impeach’ sounds positive to my ears.

DH & I had a long chat about spendthrift the other evening... He thought it meant opposite of actual meaning.