gambol & heteronym

gambol (GAM-buhl),
intransitive verb: To dance and skip about in play; to frolic.
noun: A skipping or leaping about in frolic.

I’ve been told dolphins like to gambol in the waves in these waters, and that sighting them brings good luck. –Barbara Kingsolver, “Where the Map Stopped,”

Gambol, earlier gambolde or gambalde, comes from Medieval French gambade, “a leaping or skipping,” from Late Latin gamba, “hock (of a horse), leg,” from Greek kampe, “a joint or bend.”

heteronym (HET-uhr-uh-nim) noun

A word that has the same spelling as another word but with a different
pronunciation and meaning.

In the following poem, each end-word is heteronymic:

Listen, readers, toward me bow.
Be friendly; do not draw the bow.
Please don’t try to start a row.
Sit peacefully, all in a row.
Don’t act like a big, fat sow.
Do not the seeds of discord sow.

In a pure heteronymic pair, the two words must be etymologically unrelated, as in bass, buffet, deserts, dove, entrance, lead, moped, unionized, wind, and wound.

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