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I saw these words in Information, and am guessing that they are the roots of the now more common extinguished and disgruntled. My question is ths: Is it "ingenuous" to use such words, given that they are basically dead?
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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As with any word, you're aware of roughly how often you've heard it or read it, so can gauge how unfamiliar it will be to your audience. Here you can use any word, but to most audiences politeness demands you use words they'll probably understand.
Understanding doesn't require that the hearer has heard it before. Anyone can work out gruntled if you're using it for humorous effect, though the famous Wodehouse quote does take the precaution of using the original word as well: I can't remember how it goes exactly, something like Jeeves was, if not exactly disgruntled, far from gruntled.
Tinguished is wrong in any case, if we're taking this seriously: both distinguish and extinguish are from the Latin stinguo, meaning 'prick, mark off' in one case and 'extinguish, quell' in the other. (A bit puzzling that, but Lewis & Short seem to think they're the same.)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Tinguished is wrong in any case, if we're taking this seriously: both distinguish and extinguish are from the Latin stinguo, meaning 'prick, mark off' in one case and 'extinguish, quell' in the other. (A bit puzzling that, but Lewis & Short seem to think they're the same.)
Interesting - it would appear, given the Latin root, that, in the case of extinguish, a consonant drift has occurred, (either "estingish" or "exstinguish") while it has not in the case of distinguished.
We see examples of this tendency all the time. How many times have you heard "escape" pronounced "excape", for instance? Eventually, it will probably become "excape". [Emoticon for "I hear the dark forces of linguistic conservatism gathering"].
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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Well the double [s] in [eks-s-] would immediately have been simplified to a single one, but in Latin they often wrote the s, as in exspecto. We always take our words from the alternative spelling such as expecto, so it's not always obvious what the root is if you take ex- away from 'expect'.
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old hand
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old hand
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Nemo
As one of the perpetrators of those words, I beg pardon on the grounds that I was attempting to make play with this (?) week's word theme - about beheading words. See the 'Weekly Themes' forum for reference.
A moment of madness which is usually allowed on this Board. Do I have to hold my wrists out to be smacked?
cheer
the sunshine warrior
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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shanks asks, with slavering anticiption (and knowing full well that the board's sleaze police are away getting a politickal eddication): Do I have to hold my wrists out to be smacked?I don't remember you as a Conservative member of Cabinet, old son. 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Cap K asks: How many times have you heard "escape" pronounced "excape", for instance?
This has happened the other way around; the OE acsian has degenerated to the MnE ask.
This "incorrect" pronunciation has become the standard and the dialectal ax is considered incorrect.
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Carpal Tunnel
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CapK asides: ... and knowing full well that the board's sleaze police are away getting a politickal eddication)...
"They" did not, however, fail to hire spies ['arched eyebrow' emoticon]
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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A pox on the heads of all the rappers and ebonics pushers who have brought aks / ax (instead of ASK) into mainstream vocabulary. I get seriously annoyed when I hear this. It grates on my nerves worse that nails on chalkboard.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Do I have to hold my wrists out to be smacked?
Well now, to continue the beheading trend, perhaps now the sleaze police (sleaze police?? po-leaze!) will be
content if your wrists are acked.
BTW, I hate hearing ax a question, myself.(shudder emoticon)
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