Wordsmith Talk |
About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us | |||
Register Log In Wordsmith.org Forums General Topics Q&A about words off balance?
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
The prefixes un- and in- (leading to im) are cognate according to the OED, but they reached the English language by different (germanic vs. latin) paths. Due to this, as it often happens, each carved out its niche. Again according to OED, imbalance was "Orig. a technical term in Ophthalmology", which then took on a more general use, my guess is because -mb- is less demanding for the tongue than -nb-.
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted off balance? boronia 06/13/04 04:30 PM Re: off balance? of troy 06/13/04 06:25 PM Re: off balance? shanks 06/13/04 06:49 PM Re: off balance? musick 06/13/04 08:06 PM Re: off balance? Buffalo Shrdlu 06/14/04 12:21 AM Re: off balance? tang 06/13/04 11:37 PM Re: off balance? Father Steve 06/14/04 12:25 AM Re: off balance? belMarduk 06/14/04 11:34 PM Re: off balance? boronia 06/17/04 11:58 PM Re: level wow 06/18/04 01:36 PM Re: off balance? wsieber 06/15/04 05:13 AM
Moderated by Jackie
Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics Forums16Topics13,913Posts229,371Members9,182 Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
Newest Members Ineffable, ddrinnan, TRIALNERRA, befuddledmind, KILL_YOUR_SUV
9,182 Registered Users
Who's Online Now 0 members (), 793 guests, and 0 robots. Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Top Posters(30 Days) A C Bowden 24
Top Posters wwh 13,858Faldage 13,803Jackie 11,613wofahulicodoc 10,561tsuwm 10,542LukeJavan8 9,919Buffalo Shrdlu 7,210AnnaStrophic 6,511Wordwind 6,296of troy 5,400
Forum Rules · Mark All Read Contact Us · Forum Help · Wordsmith.org