Plural of antimony; multiple samples or types of the chemical element antimony, or multiple instances of something contradictory.
Plural form of antimony, a word whose ultimate origin remains debated. It may come from Medieval Latin 'antimonium' (possibly Arabic 'ithmid'). The polysemy (multiple meanings) reflects both the chemical element and its earlier sense of paradox.
This one word carries two completely different meanings—it can mean samples of the element antimony, or multiple contradictions (antimonies in logic). Language inherited this double meaning because early chemists were also philosophers, and the word's origin was already mysterious.
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