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It's a funny language
Sep. 12th, 2007 09:48 amI'm playing around with Scrabble words again and it's brought to mind something that I've often found interesting.
There are a lot of words that now only exist in their negative or reverse form.
You can have 'reconcile', but not 'concile'.
You may be disconcerted, but how often are you concerted? (The latter still exists, but is a lot rarer than the first.)
Discombobulated is English, but what odds on combobulated? (LJ's spellchecker allows the first, but not the second)
I'm assuming that all words of this nature were once in current usage, but that the positive form has fallen out of use while the negative one remained.
What words of this nature can you think of?
There are a lot of words that now only exist in their negative or reverse form.
You can have 'reconcile', but not 'concile'.
You may be disconcerted, but how often are you concerted? (The latter still exists, but is a lot rarer than the first.)
Discombobulated is English, but what odds on combobulated? (LJ's spellchecker allows the first, but not the second)
I'm assuming that all words of this nature were once in current usage, but that the positive form has fallen out of use while the negative one remained.
What words of this nature can you think of?
