Another round of "What's that word?"

[featherynscale]

So yesterday I got into it with greektoomey, and had a fine time. I thanked him for being such a good adversary, and he got concerned. In my world, one's adversary is someone who is on the other side, but not hostile, like someone you are playing a game against. I derive this shade of meaning from the whole God/Satan thing, in which Satan is The Adversary. I've always sort of thought of those two as regular chess players, so my usage of the word reflects that. It was pointed out to me, though, that most people regard the opposition of God and Satan to be of a more serious sort, that they are in fact enemies, each bent on the destruction of the other.

So if I can't use "adversary" to denote an oppositional relationship based on competition with a respected equal or near-equal without hostility, what is the word for that?


opponent
\Op*po"nent\, n. 1. One who opposes; an adversary; an antagonist; a foe. --Macaulay.
2. One who opposes in a disputation, argument, or other verbal controversy; specifically, one who attacks some theirs or proposition, in distinction from the respondent, or defendant, who maintains it.

ad·ver·sar·y
n. pl. ad·ver·sar·ies
An opponent; an enemy.
Adversary The Devil; Satan. Often used with the.

antagonist
\An*tag"o*nist\, n. [L. antagonista, Gr. ?; ? against + ? combatant, champion, fr. ?: cf. F. antagoniste. See Antagonism.] 1. One who contends with another, especially in combat; an adversary; an opponent.
Antagonist of Heaven's Almigthy King. --Milton.
Our antagonists in these controversies. --Hooker.
2. (Anat.) A muscle which acts in opposition to another; as a flexor, which bends a part, is the antagonist of an extensor, which extends it.
3. (Med.) A medicine which opposes the action of another medicine or of a poison when absorbed into the blood or tissues.

Antagonist looks good by the dictionary definition, but the connotations carried by "antagonize" include to irritate or annoy, which sort of blows that.

Comments

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

rival?