What we're writing - Hallie on "pushmepullyou" words

HALLIE EPHRON: I’m still going through all the stuff I’ve written since … I bit the bullet and succumbed to the inevitable. And resurrecting a draft of one of my earliest published essays, “Remembering Dorothy Parker.” It ran in a 1998 “Travelers’ Tales” anthology, A Mother’s World.

I have the copy of the book that I gave to my husband. See what I wrote on the fly leaf way back then… 

It was, after all, my first writing published in an actual book.

In the piece, I talk about my complicated mother and the first trip we took to Manhattan.

Here’s a paragraph

The next day, we take a walk, across to Fifth Avenue. I tag along feeling unbearably unsophisticated and uncomfortable in my itchy coat as my mother strides up Fifth Avenue. Her clothes that seem so stiff and off-putting in Los Angeles are exactly right here.

Disencumbered of a car, she is nonplussed by the crowds, oblivious to the car horns and bus exhaust. I cling to her as we race across intersections against red lights, terrified that we’ll be arrested for jaywalking.

Rereading this, the editor in me immediately kicks in and snags on a word… nonplussed.

It’s one of those pushmepullyou (remember the two-headed llama-like animal from Dr. Dolittle?) words that I’m never sure how to use because it feels as if it has two opposite-ish meanings. Like inflammable. Or biweekly. Or wicked.

I used nonplussed, thinking it meant that she seemed calm, not at all concerned about the crowded streets. But it seems that nonplussed can mean the opposite: surprised, confused, unsure how to act. Which my mother was not. Ever.

Writing is full of cool moments like this when you pull your head out of the weeds and just admire the glory of word-dom.

Are there multi-meaning words that trip you up, too?