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Previous Thread Next Thread Print Thread be gruntled #107527 07/13/2003 4:38 PM Joined: Mar 2001 Posts: 4,189 Rio Grande, Cape May County, N... WhitmanO'Neill Carpal Tunnel WhitmanO'Neill Carpal Tunnel Joined: Mar 2001 Posts: 4,189 Rio Grande, Cape May County, N... Heard a radio DJ use this today as a sort of catch-phrase to his morning show. To make it a point to go through the day with good cheer and look for ways to compliment people, etc. Never considered that disgruntled, commonly used, had gruntle as the opposite root. And, actually, I don't think I've ever heard gruntled used on its own in my lifetime...till now. But it's a definite word: from Merriam-Websters: grun-tle: to put in good humor <were gruntled with a good meal and a good conversation -- W.P. Webb> What sayest the OED about gruntled? What thinkest my fellow wordies? Be gruntled! I kinda like it. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: be gruntled #107528 07/13/2003 4:44 PM Joined: Dec 2002 Posts: 555 maahey addict maahey addict Joined: Dec 2002 Posts: 555 I kinda like it. Me too, WO'N! And it has all sorts of wonderfully contrary associations doesn't it? Nice word! Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: be gruntled #107529 07/13/2003 5:30 PM Joined: Sep 2001 Posts: 6,296 Piedmont Region of Virginia, U... Wordwind Carpal Tunnel Wordwind Carpal Tunnel Joined: Sep 2001 Posts: 6,296 Piedmont Region of Virginia, U... This is a truly funny word, W'! I will make a point of using it in some writing exercises this year to see how it is understood. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: be gruntled #107530 07/13/2003 6:55 PM Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Faldage Carpal Tunnel Faldage Carpal Tunnel Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 What sa[ith] the OED about gruntled? The most applicable definition for gruntle is: To grumble, murmur, complain The definition given by M-W for gruntle is a modern back-formation from disgruntle assuming the more common negating meaning of dis-. The dis- in disgruntle would be the intensive rather than the negating dis-. Gruntle is grunt plus the frequentative ending -le See also http://wordsmith.org/board/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=weeklythemes&Number=107926 Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: be gruntled #107531 07/13/2003 11:48 PM Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 this too shall pass tsuwm Carpal Tunnel tsuwm Carpal Tunnel Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 this too shall pass >modern back-formation how modern, you ask? MW says 1926. OED may catch up with this via their ongoing revisions around 2015 (inexplicably, they started in the middle of the alphabet :). the only online source which comes close to the complete story is this: <g> http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd/ghi.htm#gruntle Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: be gruntled #107532 07/16/2003 11:37 PM Joined: Aug 2002 Posts: 2,154 British Columbia, Canada Zed Pooh-Bah Zed Pooh-Bah Joined: Aug 2002 Posts: 2,154 British Columbia, Canada re inexplicably they started in the middle of the alphabet Have some ruth, that's probably a major rebellion for a dictionary writer- very exciting stuff. Shame about gruntled though, I liked it too. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: be gruntled #107533 07/17/2003 4:42 AM Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 3,065 Jakarta Bingley Carpal Tunnel Bingley Carpal Tunnel Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 3,065 Jakarta Doesn't PG Wodehouse describe someone as being "if not exactly disgruntled was very far from being gruntled"? I forget which book it was, but no doubt somebody out there knows. Bingley Bingley Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: PG Wodehouse #107534 07/17/2003 12:07 PM Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 this too shall pass tsuwm Carpal Tunnel tsuwm Carpal Tunnel Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 this too shall pass http://www.quinion.com/words/articles/unpaired.htm (Code of the Woosters was published in 1938, so this isn't the source of the 1926 date given for the back-formation of gruntle) [as an interesting coincidence (or not), see the sidebar on this page: http://www.wodehouse.org/PlumLines/patzel.html] Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: aphesis #107535 07/18/2003 4:36 AM Joined: Mar 2001 Posts: 4,189 Rio Grande, Cape May County, N... WhitmanO'Neill Carpal Tunnel WhitmanO'Neill Carpal Tunnel Joined: Mar 2001 Posts: 4,189 Rio Grande, Cape May County, N... Something from tsuwm's Quinion link I found extra-interesting: >Similarly, dishevelled comes from the Old French deschevelé and was not derived from a word shevelled. That word was created from it later by losing its first syllable through a process called aphesis and had the same sense. However, it was never common and has long since vanished from the lexicon.< Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: mantle peace #107536 07/18/2003 6:24 PM Joined: Sep 2000 Posts: 4,757 maverick Carpal Tunnel maverick Carpal Tunnel Joined: Sep 2000 Posts: 4,757 The early literal sense of dismantle was to remove one’s cloak or mantle, and hence to undress; it was later applied figuratively to the process of stripping a fortress of its defences; all these meanings existed in French before the word came into English. Here, mantle has not vanished, though it is rarer than its opposite. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: unpaired negatives #107537 07/19/2003 1:34 AM Joined: Dec 2002 Posts: 555 maahey addict maahey addict Joined: Dec 2002 Posts: 555 let's add our own to quinion's list. dismember Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Moderated by  Jackie  Hop To General Topics ------  Information and announcements  Q&A about words  Wordplay and fun  Words and languages in schools  Miscellany  Weekly Themes  Looking for (writers, speakers,... (Old) Weekly themes. 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