Words like this fascinate me, presumably at one time people were gruntled, but now we seem only to be disgruntled.
Was your flabber ever unghasted? Whats your flabber anyway?
Do you ever combobulate things, rather than have them discombobulated?
Words like this fascinate me, presumably at one time people were gruntled, but now we seem only to be disgruntled.
Was your flabber ever unghasted? Whats your flabber anyway?
Do you ever combobulate things, rather than have them discombobulated?
This is my favourite so far. Can somebody called Ruth ever be ruthless? I just googled it and apparently Ruth is the root word so you would not necessarily have been Ruth (although it does says it's an old word) but you may have been ruthful - full of sorrow.
Have I ever been Ruth? I've been known to be ruthless.
Exactly, English is such an odd language with so many borrowed and imported words, plus all the gramatical prefixes and suffixes, all the ing's, un's and dis's.
Then you get the Greek influences, the ph instead of f, why can I have a fizzy drink rather than a phizzy one?
Then there was the Great Vowel Shift a couple , of centuries ago and I've never worked that one out, so if anyone can enlighten me please do.
I loved it when I found out that kidney is another word for genre
Imagine the confusion it would cause now if someone said, "My favourite kidney of music is..."
The 17thC seems responsible for a lot of words, they really went in for flowery language. Shakespere and Dickens both created words that are now common.
I loved it when I found out that kidney is another word for genre, genre is one of those silly words I can't finish saying, the err bit just seem to go on and on.
I asked why we have two prefixes to indicate a negative, in- and un-.
The answer seems ok, but makes my "inflammable" more confusing.
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The prefixes "un-" and "in-" both indicate opposites, but their usage often depends on the origin of the base word. "Un-" is the Germanic version and is used with words of Germanic or Anglo-Saxon origin (e.g., unhappy, untrue), while "in-" is a Latin-derived prefix used with words from Latin or French (e.g., inactive, incorrect).
"Un-"
Origin: Germanic.
Usage: Typically used with words that have Germanic roots. It can mean "not" or signify the reversal of an action.
Examples:
Not: unhappy, unlucky
Reversal of an action: unzip, untie
"In-"
Origin: Latin.
Usage: Used with words that have Latin or French origins. It generally means "not".
Examples:
Not: inactive, incomplete, incorrect
Reversal of an action: undo (though this uses the Germanic "un-")
Why two prefixes?
English is a language with many influences, primarily from Germanic and Latin roots.
As words entered the language, they often kept the negative prefix from their original language.
This is why words like unhappy (Germanic) and incorrect (Latin) both mean "not" but use different prefixes.
I love the title of your post TheCatWoman .
Flabbergasted is a word I have heard for much of life, as my mother and her siblings often use it. I think it's a great word.
Discombobulated was not a word I had ever come across until a few years ago, but now I seem to read and hear it a lot. I also consider it to be a great word.
During GCSE English lessons at school, I would sometimes look in my thesaurus for less commonly-used words to use for creative writing tasks. Sometimes, I would try to incorporate them into conversations too, as a way of expanding my vocabulary.
now we seem only to be disgruntled.
Fun fact - disgruntled stems from a 16th century term "grunt" which means to complain. In the 1930s it shifted to mean a satisfied grunt.
Flabbergast seems to have its origins in the 1700s, stemming from the word flabby/flappy and aghast. It implies the facial expression with flapping lips of someone taken aback by something.
Discombobulate stems from 1852 meaning a fantastical mock-Latin American English coinage from confound or confuse, originally in "Negro dialect
We get inflammable from the Latin verb inflammare, which combines flammare ("to catch fire") with a Latin prefix in meaning "to cause to be."
All was fine with this situation until 1813, when a scholar translating a Latin text coined the English word flammable from the Latin flammare.
source https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/flammable-or-inflammable
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I love the word discombobulated. Makes sense you should also be able to combobulate. I agree with how it sounds. It's fun to say.
Some words are interesting. I've never understood why flammable and inflammable mean the same thing. But I just looked and apparently:
... However, in "inflammable," the "in-" comes from the Latin verb "inflammare" and acts as an intensifier, meaning "to cause to catch fire".
It seems you can also be capacitated, not just incapacitated.
Then there are words like take and mistake which aren't the same at all.
It is like some of it has just been made up ;-)
I can't remember when I last used any of these words.
I too used Google to get a proper understanding.
I might set myself a fun challenge to get them into some of my conversations.
Apparently combobulate can mean to put in order. I do like how this word sounds, it's lovely.
I was intrigued so I had a quick Google. It appears that gruntled is a word, just not commonly used. But Flabbergasted has only ever been one word. There is an unofficial meaning to combobulate that people apparently use but it has not made it into the dictionary.
