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>"Well, 'outgrabing' is something between bellowing and whistling, with a kind of sneeze in the middle: however, you'll hear it done, maybe--down in the wood yonder--and, when you've once heard it, you'll be quite content" (Carroll The Annotated Alice 270-2).<
This still concerns me!
'outgrabing' appears to be the present participle, which would tend to make the infinitive 'outgrabe' and the present tense 'outgrabe'. So why isn't the past tense 'outgrabed'? Or 'outgrobe'?
(I cannot believe Carroll suddenly slipped into the present without noticing....)
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I don't think that anyone just decides to coin a word and then find it in usage
michaelo, I agree!...UNLESS the person happens to be famous, and is widely quoted in the media. I know fashion
trends get set by the stars, so why not language innovations (and deletions)?
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In reply to:
'outgrabing' appears to be the present participle, which would tend to make the infinitive 'outgrabe' and the present tense 'outgrabe'. So why isn't the past tense 'outgrabed'? Or 'outgrobe'?
Perhaps 'outgrabe' is irregular: outgrabe outgrabe outgrabe.
Bingley
Bingley
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>Perhaps 'outgrabe' is irregular: outgrabe outgrabe outgrabe. Not unlike: read read read< Probably the only solution. But does it change its pronunciation? 
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Pooh-Bah
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> Whatever a tove is . . .
In our family circle, a "slithy tove" is used as a perjorative term for an unreliable character - most frequent use is probably for pushy retail salespeople (usually men, I have to say) who are oily and obsequious. Uriah Heep (David Copperfield) was definitely a slithy tove.
Incidentally, my family all refer to dark woodland as "tulgy woods," and accuse each other of burbling. (Well - mostly it is my progeny who refer to me, their revered parent in that fashion. I cannot think why.)
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As the dislexic said, "Nothing's been right in the world since women got the tove."
TEd
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seen on a bumper sticker:
D.A.M. (Mothers Against Dyslexia)
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