Krabo wrote:
All these English con words confuse me. Let me quote Julia Roberts in Erin Brockowich, "How can it be conscience?"
The prefix "con" can mean either "with", or in can mean "opposed". Two unrelated, and almost opposite meanings. Probably the two meanings are from different origins.
"conscience" means what it looks and sounds like: "with science", or "with knowledge".
In contrast there are words like "contravening", contrary, and all of the phrases with "counter" like "counter clockwise", and "counter culture", "counterrevolutionary", where con and counter mean "opposed", or "reverse".
"Congress" means a "gathering" (folks coming together), but lends itself to the above quip because a Martian could take the word to mean "reverse progress".