Peculiarities of the English language.

[Over The Hill]

Cleave is a fairly useless word in that it has two meanings - each the opposite of the other. (1. Split or divide from. 2. Attach or stick to.)

So if you cleave you girlfriend you may have married her or left her (or split her head open).

 

[661-Pete]

I had heard and have used the word couth. So, I googled a bit and came across this - some interesting unpaired words:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unpaired_word

Useful link that, thank you, answered a few of my questions. And awakened ('wakened'?) a dimly-recalled memory from way back in my primary school. We were asked the question "what does infamous mean?" Up shoots my innocent hand "Please Miss, please Miss, does it mean not famous?" Teacher put me right, but it was some years later before I really understood her explanation...

 

[661-Pete]

Another puzzler is the difference in meaning between venal and venial. How many have been caught out by that?

 

[Yellow Fang]

I supposed there's ruthless. I've never heard of ruth or ruthful. There's a book in the Old Testament dedicated to Ruth. I wondered if the word derived from her. That can't be taken for granted though, because some of those old testament babes were hard bitches.

 

[dellzeqq]

cleave. Explain that one.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cleave

 

[661-Pete]

I supposed there's ruthless. I've never heard of ruth or ruthful. There's a book in the Old Testament dedicated to Ruth. I wondered if the word derived from her. That can't be taken for granted though, because some of those old testament babes were hard bitches.

As someone already mentioned, Google is your friend here:
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=ruthless

And likewise for 'reckless', although I have heard of the archaic 'reck'.

 

[mcshroom]

There's always wind, or is it wind?

 

[zimzum42]

I'm proper gruntled with this thread!

 

[Haitch]

I used to puzzle over words beginning with "un-", which are not opposites of the same word without the "un-". For example, uncouth, unwieldy (can you be "couth" or "wieldy"?). How many such words are there?

Couth (a backformation from uncouth) stems from the same Old English root as "kith", meaning friends and acquaintances, perhaps best known in the phrase "kith and kin". Uncouth basically means "not like us".

As for "un-" words, what about peeling an apple, when you actually unpeel it?

 

[Haitch]

And likewise for 'reckless', although I have heard of the archaic 'reck'.

Reckless (which I always want to spell with a "w" like Eric did) comes from the Dutch word "roekeloos" (meaning, surprise, surprise, reckless). There is no word "roek" in this meaning in Dutch.

 

[Brains]

a "Cargo" goes on a ship
a "Shipment" goes in a lorry

To be correct, "Shipment" goes in a Truck as it's an Americanism. Lorries carry 'loads'. In nautical circles you can have a 'shipment' of 'cargo'

 

[atbman]

Near miss. What, a hit you mean?

Newsreaders often put the emphasis on the wrong word.

Try near miss and near miss to get the proper effect

 

[ColinJ]

My GF remarked the other day that she finds the word "gormless" peculiar because it implies that one is without "gorm" ... but you'd never describe someone as being "gormful" or "gormy", nor is there a noun, "gorm". So the meaning of the word "gorm" seems to have been lost, and we're left with "gormless".

I'm trying to think of other examples but can't think of any straight off!

Those of us old enough to have watched 'Candid Camera' in black and white might recall the time that one of the cast posed as a foreign student whose English girlfriend had chucked him because she thought he was 'gormless'. He wandered about asking old ladies where he could buy a 'gorm'. They tried to explain the concept to him and he pretended not to understand...

 

[661-Pete]

How long is it since we had those car window stickers?

BE ALERT.
YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS LERTS.

Or something to that effect...

 

[Maizie]

A fabulous short article from the New Yorker which is worth a read:

http://beebo.org/smackerels/how-i-met-my-wife.htmlhttp://www.ling.upenn.edu/~beatrice/humor/how-i-met-my-wife.html