This is tricky. Conjunctions and prepositions are among the most difficult meanings for semanticists to describe objectively, and this is why they often have the longest entries in dictionaries.
Note that in the previous sentence, between would not have worked in place of among.
Between implicitly suggests a cline or planes of possibilities - it can be an n-dimensional plane, and whatever it is you're talking about lies somewhere in relation to other, points on it.
The very first sense of 'between' on Collins echoes this sentiment:
- at a point or in a region intermediate to two other points in space, times, degrees, etc
This is likely why you have intuited that between seems to suggest a star topology in network parlance.
Among(st), on the other hand, is subtly different - it merely suggests a relationship to other things, without making claims to where it stands. If you consider a scatter plot, you could say that any of the points lies amongst others.
There is the possible exception of outliers and those points which lie on the edge of the groups, but that becomes a much more difficult issue to manage, akin to Sorites Paradox. My response to that is that the following sentence seems perfectly grammatical and sensible:
He was the smartest by far among those students in his age group.
The definition for among(st) on Collins suggests a couple of relationships:
- in the midst of
- in the group (of)
Of course, definitions can quickly become circular - that is, how does "in the midst of" differ from "between"? In the midst of seems to invoke a sense of positioning, rather than just that of relationships in general. The positioning can be based on anything, really, but among seems more felicitous when used in the description of vague constellations of meaning and relations, and between in those that are a bit more explicit.
"In the group of", on the other hand, is a much cleaner relationship.
Overall, the difference between between and among seems to be a fuzzy one - in the preceding clause, among would not have worked in place of between. I would say that between is better-suited for more explicit relationships, and among(st) for messier, more vague constellations of relations.
In the case of your two examples, I would say that the first means that you're comparing "[to be] not invited" with other forms. That is, "[to be] not invited" vs form-1, "[to be] not invited" vs form-2, etc.
If the question had read "what are the differences in meaning amongst negated forms (for example [to be] not invited)?", between/among(st) would both work well.
In the etymology you've posted, 'fun' is described as "to cheat, hoax" as early as the 1680s. 'Funny' is then attested at a later time as a modifier with a slightly modified sense emphasizing the humorous aspect of something like a hoax or joke. A particular 'cheat', 'trick', or 'hoax' could seem more like a good-natured laugh or more like a mean-spirited attack. You see this spectrum of meanings in the various definitions.
At it's core, 'funny' means 'unusual', 'unexpected', or 'odd'. All the definitions you've included in your questions are just different, more specific ways in which it is used to mean this.
Humorous
Things which are completely expected, known, and ordinary are generally not funny. Most humor involves misdirection and surprise, so it fits in with the ideas of unusual and unexpected, i.e. 'odd'.
Strange
I hope this is clear.
Dishonest
Things or people which are dishonest are not what they're expected or believed to be. Some uses of 'funny' in this sense include "funny money" and "funny business".
Unfriendly
I'm not familiar with this usage, but I'm not from the UK. The closest thing I can think of is "you're acting funny" when someone seems to be offended. This is said because the person is not acting in their usual manner, but instead in an offended manner. I suppose this could be extended to general unfriendliness fairly easily.
Ill
The important thing to note here is that 'funny' can mean "slightly ill". Feeling funny is between feeling healthy and feeling sick. You don't feel like you normally do, but you don't feel awful either. A simple stomach ache probably doesn't go beyond feeling funny, but the flu takes you all the way to sick.
A synonym for this sense of 'funny' would be 'quesy'.
Crazy
Crazy things are so unexpected and unusual that we often can't figure out why they would be that way.
Best Answer
If you told me that you dropped your phone, I'd assume it was unintentional. (I can't recall ever seeing someone drop their phone on purpose.) When a drop is intentional, that is usually apparent from the context:
Of course, there's no way to tell for sure – perhaps Rhonda is a recently-jilted lover who is throwing an old letter from her former companion down the sewer drain as an act of contempt; perhaps Paul has recently purchased new eyeglasses and is throwing away his old ones – but there is usually enough context to tell.
Incidentally, this question reminds me of a story that happened to me a long time ago, when my brother and I were young children. Our father took us drop-line fishing off a town bridge; that is, we were using rigs like the one on the left to fish from a bridge like the one on the right:
Anyhow, my line slipped out of my hands and fell into the river. Our father baited my brother's hook, and then said, "Okay, now drop your line in" (meaning, "Put your hook in the water"). My brother (perhaps four years old at the time) threw his line into the river and began to cry.
Our dad asked, "What did you do that for?"
My brother answered, "Well, you told me to drop it in!"
(He thought my dad was trying to be "fair" – since I had lost my line, my brother should lose his, too.)
We went home that day without any fish, but we had a funny story to tell for the rest of our lives.
So, you see, the word drop can be ambiguous in more ways than one.