Wittol: wwftd. I could not find out if the word was derived from name of character in Congreve play, or if Congreve named the character from a pre-existing word.
Goatboy asks an interesting question and could we please get back to it ? Welcome Goatboy...Don't give up, we tend to go off on tangents but eventually an answer emerges, even if it takes a year and a day. Right Max? I hope for elucidation on downsized words as I haven't a witter!
Dear wow: the reason goatboy's question did not get answered is that none of us know any such words. To tease you a bit,I double dare you to post some.
Well bill, there is alwasy the expression that "Their IQ is equal to the shoe size" and the new rejoinder," and i think they lie about what size shoes they wear... "
it all modern day evolution.. engineers go out and build idiot proof machines, and god( or the what ever force you want to name) goes out and provides the world with a better class of idiot.. so to keep the engineers employed...
wow, I had two(2) problems with this question: what is meant by a "re-sized" word, and (more pointedly) what is meant by "valid"? (to wit <ahem>, I don't know if quarter-wit should be considered "valid")
I suppose you could take any word with a number or size and "adjust" the size, usually with the object being to intensify. e.g., joe is likely to do this task in a full-assed manner; teD has posted another of his thrice-told tales; etc.
>we should check OED, but W3 traces it from ME wetewold as in cokewold (cuckold).
OED2 not only supports this, but suggests a direct path from cokewold, and shows the second sense as transf. (? with pun on wit-all.) One who has little sense; a half-witted person; a fool; occas. a witling. Shakespeare was an early user of the cuckold sense.
I, too, remember double dare from my childhood (which predates Truth or Dare by a considerable amount). In my neighborhood the person who was double dared usually claimed that it meant that the issuer of the dare had to perform the required feat first.
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