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Post by Verbivore on May 27, 2008 11:36:44 GMT
(dis)mantle
Today I dismantled a car. If I put it back together will I be mantling it?
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Post by Dave M on May 27, 2008 13:16:17 GMT
I think we "paint" a wall and "peel" an apple, even though in one we add and in the other we subtract, because we take the normal action as the positive. Hence also to "gut" a fish (subtract) and "coat" a peanut (add).
Where we do the actions equally, we tend to keep the additive one positive (I think ...): "dress" is additive, "undress" is subtractive; to "paper" a wall is additive.
I love the Wooster-style "reflections" of words we encounter only in one form, and a long while ago wrote a small 'Dictionary of Negatives', including things like "dulating (adj.): particularly flat" and (my favourite) "afen (v): to improve the hearing of". It came to several pages of typewritten foolscap and I do wish I could find it!
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Post by Sue M-V on May 27, 2008 15:18:06 GMT
"Ravel" sounds distinctly Shakespearean to me (ravel up the sleeve of care). I've never heard "unthaw" before, so I don't know how much in use it is.
Sue
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Post by Paul Doherty on May 27, 2008 16:11:19 GMT
Barry, ... and wasn't married to Sheila Hancock?
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Post by Barry on May 27, 2008 16:45:39 GMT
That's yer feller.
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Post by amanda on May 27, 2008 18:50:43 GMT
And, technically, amanda, it's a Passiontide rather than an Easter hymn I knew I was going to get pulled up for something on that remark! That's why I used the word song instead of hymn, as I expected someone to tell me it wasn't one! But you got me anyway, clever-clogs.
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Post by SusanB on May 27, 2008 18:51:02 GMT
Where we do the actions equally, we tend to keep the additive one positive (I think ...): "dress" is additive, "undress" is subtractive; to "paper" a wall is additive. Yes. How can we fit deface into this? There we add something to the wall. Or can we deface the wall because as we haven't actually 'faced' it?
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Post by goofy on May 27, 2008 19:17:43 GMT
unpacked can mean "not unpacked" in contexts like I have all these boxes in my basement, still unpacked. There are also these wonderful phrases that have the same meaning whether or not they are negated Eddie knows squat about phrenology. Eddie doesn't know squat about phrenology. That'll teach you not to tease the alligators. That'll teach you to tease the alligators. I wonder whether we can't find some time to shoot pool this evening. I wonder whether we can find some time to shoot pool this evening. You shouldn't play with the alligators, I don't think. You shouldn't play with the alligators, I think. I couldn't care less about monster trucks. I could care less about monster trucks.
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Post by Tone on May 27, 2008 20:31:08 GMT
Vv, >Today I dismantled a car. If I put it back together will I be mantling it?<Well, you do worship your cars and protect them! (How is the "artist's" wagon coming along?) Tone
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Post by Dave on May 28, 2008 6:15:15 GMT
Once discombobulated, can one be combobulated? Or recombobulated?
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Post by Verbivore on May 28, 2008 9:21:45 GMT
Once discombobulated, can one be combobulated? Or recombobulated? I'm sure William Seward Burroughs could answer that one - and probably most amusingly, too (were he still alive, that is). He was a big fan of the word.
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Post by Verbivore on May 28, 2008 9:28:41 GMT
[...] (How is the "artist's" wagon coming along?) Tone I have recently acquired a pile of new panels for it; easier to replace panels than to repair the rust and bog in the old ones. And the engine rebuild is well under way. Since acquiring der Rolfwagen, I have learned that mine was the prototype for all 15 or so of that series Crayford/M-B estate cars, so perhaps that adds to its collectibility. Tie me kangaroo down, Sport!
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Post by Pete on May 28, 2008 9:35:20 GMT
"Defeated" and "feated": Is there a connection with "feat"?
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Post by Sue M-V on May 28, 2008 13:00:49 GMT
As for opposites, we all know, don't we:
They said that I was in my youth Uncouth and ungainly, forsooth. I can only reply: 'Tis a lie, 'tis a lie: I was gainly and perfectly couth.
Sue
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Post by goofy on May 28, 2008 14:03:53 GMT
"Defeated" and "feated": Is there a connection with "feat"? Yes, they're both from Latin facere "to do", but defeat is from Old French desfait (the past participle of desfaire; it was reverbed) and feat is from Anglo-Norman fet.
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