King James II of England, when he saw the restored and expanded St. Paul's Cathedral, called it "amusing, awful and artificial." The architect, Sir Christopher Wren, was not offended. On the contrary, he was flattered.

The king did not mean that it was funny or entertaining. He was not calling it atrocious or appalling. He did not consider it fake or pretentious.

In 17th century England, amusing meant "riveting." Awful meant "full of awe" or "awe inspiring." And artificial meant "artistic."

Some of your examples are very different from the case of "literally".

"Awful" isn't a reversal of meaning, it's a narrowing of meaning.

> Bolt - run away or secure in place

These are homynyms, not divergent meanings. A crossbow bolt is fast, a door bolt is secure.

> Cleave - cut or join

These appear to have converged from the separate Old English verbs "cleofan" and "clifian": http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&s...

(Interestingly, "literally" has been misused to mean its opposite since at least the 1680s: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=literally&allow... . We've held off the "it means just what I choose it to mean" hordes so far, why give up now?)

Some more of these "contronyms"

http://www.rinkworks.com/words/contronyms.shtml

Words that are their own antonyms.

My favorite is off: "off - off, on (e.g., the alarm went off)"