to think that a "polar opposite" isn't actually opposite at all, but actually opposite to opposite?

[ChaosTrulyReigns]

Rather like a double negative?

I think I understand what you're getting at here.....

So you think we should just say "That's the complete polar of that?"

No, no, because that could just imply one pole, no?

I might have to ponder this at length in the bath before I can definitively decide whether YABU or not....

(unless the OED have a 24 hour helpline)

I think it's meant to imply not just opposite, but really, really far apart....

It means the opposite. As in the poles, north and south. It's not a double negative.

It makes perfect sense, actually.

Your explanation, however, has made me cross-eyed.

you what love

But opposite is opposite.

There are no degrees of oppositeness.

Obvis.

[humph]

Tee.

SIOB

Raise your eyebrow at me, will you!

And there are degrees of opposite. Because I said so.

Yanbu.
Totally agree with you!
If a pole is the opposite the a polar opposite is and opposite opposite which means its the same....
I think.

Yes!

It makes perfect sense to me as I always understood it referred to the poles on magnets which repel/oppose each other if the wrong way round rather than the north and south poles, whuch, both being all cold and icy, are technically the same albeit at opposite ends of the globe

Random extra thes and as in that... Bloody iPhone!

Sigh.

Can I trawl out the geolect argument again?

It's ObOb. I've been forced to NC :(

Geolect? What's that when it's at home?

Isn't it just an expression.... as in to ensure the other person is clear just "HOW OPPOSITE" one thing is to another?
Mind boggling

Polar opposite implies two points with the maximum distance between them. As far as far can be/ as opposite as opposite can be.

Its not about the physical similarity (or variations) between the poles. Just distance.

It's just a big white bear staring into a mirror.

But polar doesn't actually mean opposite, does It?

I thought it was like the optimum point of opposite.

So not a double negative just opposite.

I think "polar" is just adjectival. As the other poster said, the expanded phrase might be: "They are opposites-just-like-poles-are-opposite." That is, it's not an adjective of degree, which might be something like: "They are opposites-within-about-ten-degrees-of-each-other-if-we-were-to-imagine-this-difference-which-we-are-terming-an-oppositeness-like-a-geographical-or-mathematical-position-within-a-circle." That wouldn't make a lot of sense.

I know that foosa (re the similarity), I was just trying to be witty.

its hyperbolic reinforcement, linguistically speaking.

Obvious, innit.

Or to put it another way:

People say: "Polar opposites" to make clear that what they are not saying is "opposites as in two people sitting opposite a each other on a table".

And that brings across the sense of the description, "polar opposites" because, as another poster suggested, it gives force to the idea of opposition in that it carries a sense of not only a great gulf (the earth) being between the two opposing things, but also an opposition in nature and force (being positive and negative, and repelling each other).

So it isn't a double negative, it's actually am imaginative term, albeit one that is now a bit cliched.

Commendably succinct Whatyoulookingat.

Geolect is the language of the area, non?

Like growing up in Uhmerica rather than UK. Different uses of language. Gottit?

Ahha, Whatyiulookingat. I concur. But still convincing it's verging on tautologous.