I'm ept and gruntled...

[gnomi]

...and thinking about unpaired negatives.

(OK, yeah, so "ept" is a false back-formation from "inept." Work with me here...)

So, what're your favorite unpaired negatives? Or am I the only one who ponders this kind of thing?

Comments

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Narf and poit!

[saxikath]

My dad and I used to collect these. And there was a wonderful New Yorker humor piece based on them once.

"Gruntled" has always been one of my favorites, along with "consolate."

[cbpotts.livejournal.com]

Gruntled, ept, and reft.

I particularly like reft when someone I don't care for dies. I've got a particularly snazzy red dress I wear when I'm reft.

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

On a slight tangent, I wonder why I see stores closed for remodeling, and yet I never saw that same store closed for modeling.

[caryabend.livejournal.com]

Similarly, I've always wondered about the word "Research."

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

::icon love!!!!::

[tober.livejournal.com]

trepid - there's at least one positive form present in English (trepidation) however I've never known anybody to use the unadorned positive adjective (as a synonym for "fearful").

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

On another slight tangent, Esperanto has the titles sinjoro, sinjorino, and fraŭlino meaning Mr., Mrs., and Miss respectively (and borrowed from Italian, Italian, and German). Since Esperanto has a standardized feminine suffix, early on the title fraŭlo was back-derived, meaning an unmarried male.

[docorion.livejournal.com]

I've always thought of 'apt' (also 'aptitude', e.g. 'an apt pupil') as the opposite of 'inept'.

[tsuki-no-bara.livejournal.com]

i like ept and couth, and my dad has been known to use kempt. (usually in reference to himself or me or my sister.)

[tapuz.livejournal.com]

use 'em all the time, but generally spur of the moment.... ert, as in to get anti-intertia is another good one.

[violetcheetah.livejournal.com]

i frequently get ertia from coffee.

[kuroshii.livejournal.com]

my favorite is "whelmed." neither over nor under. :)

[(Anonymous)]

Actually, the online OED gives “pleased, satisfied, contented” as a definition for “gruntled,” and it accepts “ept” when “used as a deliberate antonym of ‘inept’: adroit, appropriate, effective.”

On the other hand, one of the definitions the online OED accepts for “reft” is “robbed, bereft of something.” That raises the matter of seemingly paired negatives in which negation does not actually occur--e.g., “flammable” and “inflammable”. Similarly, "wildered" and "bewildered."


STEVE O., unbewildered

[magid.livejournal.com]

Also raveled and unraveled.
(Unless it's got to do with Bolero :-)

[epj.livejournal.com]

I'm a big fan of "whelmed", which we know from Ten Things I Hate About You is something you can be in Europe.

All wisdom comes from Nancy

[sethcohen.livejournal.com]

"Do not disturb. I had a hard enough time getting turbed in the first place."

[marsgov.livejournal.com]

Don't forget "scrutable."

Having thought long and hard about this topic before, I find that the knowledge that others have also considered it makes me easy.

[violetcheetah.livejournal.com]

sheveled. although i suppose it should be 'heveled,' but if you say it aloud, no one knows what you mean.

i also like astrous, but i don't have as many opportunities to use it.