英语 英语 日语 日语 韩语 韩语 法语 法语 德语 德语 西班牙语 西班牙语 意大利语 意大利语 阿拉伯语 阿拉伯语 葡萄牙语 葡萄牙语 越南语 越南语 俄语 俄语 芬兰语 芬兰语 泰语 泰语 泰语 丹麦语 泰语 对外汉语

英语语法:204 Why Isn't “Gruntled” a Word?

时间:2010-07-05 02:50来源:互联网 提供网友:harryyang   字体: [ ]
特别声明:本栏目内容均从网络收集或者网友提供,供仅参考试用,我们无法保证内容完整和正确。如果资料损害了您的权益,请与站长联系,我们将及时删除并致以歉意。
    (单词翻译:双击或拖选)

Grammar Girl here.

Today, guest writer Bonnie Trenga is going to tell us why we’re never “gruntled,” “sheveled,” or “in whack2,” but why we are often “disgruntled,” “disheveled,” and “out of whack.”

Bonnie says,

Thanks to an interesting question from Glenn, we’ll be talking about words or phrases that have only a negative connotation; there is no opposite word with a positive connotation. These negative words might seem a bit wacky, but as in a recent podcast about irregular plurals3, we’ll be looking back at the origins of English to discover why.

Negative Prefixes5

“Disgruntled” and “disheveled” both have the prefix4 “dis-,” which is one of the negative prefixes we commonly use today. Other negative prefixes are “non-,” “un,” and “in-” (which changes to “il-,” “im-,” and “ir-” before certain letters). You can also sometimes make something negative by putting “anti-” in front of it. These negative prefixes give words the connotation “not.” You simply add the prefix to the stem word to create a new word. You can add these prefixes to the beginning of nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs to make them negative. So you could take the stem word “honest” and add the prefix “dis-” to get “dishonest.” Likewise, take the stem word “happiness” and add the prefix “un-” to come up with “unhappiness.” You get the idea.

“Disgruntled”

Many words starting with “dis-,” such as “disability,” “disapprove,” and “disagreeing,” have corresponding positive words: “ability,” “approve,” and “agreeing.” Others, such as “disgruntled,” have lost their stem words. We can no longer say, “gruntled” because that is not a word. I learned this by reading my dictionary, which honestly is fascinating reading. Don’t dis me because I read the dictionary! Anyway, I looked up a lot of “dis-” words, and therefore learned something about the past. According to my dictionary, the word “disgruntled,” meaning discontented, comes from a combination of the prefix “dis-” plus the word “gruntled,” a Middle English form of the word “gruntelen,” which is a form of the word “to grunt1” (1). So apparently6 we used to be able to be gruntled, but nowadays we don’t grunt so much.

“Disheveled”

Another of Glenn’s questions was about the word “disheveled,” which means messy and often refers to hair or clothing. I learned the fascinating history of this word, too, by reading my dictionary. You probably wouldn’t guess that the French word for “hair” is at the root of this word (1). However, “disheveled” originates from the prefix “dis-” plus the word “chevel,” which means hair. Anyone who has studied French will remember that “hair” is “les cheveux.”

Other Interesting Origins of Negative Words

Let’s do one more “dis-” word and then we’ll distance ourselves from this prefix. “Disaster” has an interesting history, too. Unfortunately, we can’t say that something good was an “aster.” The word “disaster” comes from the prefix “dis-” plus the word “astro,” which of course means “star” (2). An obsolete7 meaning of the word “disaster,” according to my dictionary, is “an evil influence of a star or planet.”

You could probably spend hours poring through your dictionary learning the meanings of words that these days have only a negative connotation. If you want to have a bit of fun instead of working or studying, try looking up “nonchalant”; as I’m sure you’re aware, you won’t find “chalant” in the dictionary. (I’ll give you a hint: “chalant” is related to the French word “to heat.”) You might also have fun with “insipid,” with the “sipid” part somehow related to the Latin word “to taste.”

“Out of Whack”

Well, I could have spent hours looking at the dictionary, but it wasn’t much use when I faced Glenn’s last conundrum8: the phrase “out of whack,” which means not functioning correctly. I had to go to the Internet to solve that mystery. I found an interesting site all about the English language, World Wide Words, hosted by Michael Quinion (3). The “out of whack” page, which was actually working quite well, explains that in the nineteenth century, “There seems to have been a phrase ‘in fine whack,’ meaning that something was in good condition or excellent fettle.” Apparently someone by the name of John Hay described President Lincoln by saying, “The Tycoon9 is in fine whack.” Although this is not a very common phrase, it’s easy to see how “out of whack” could be the opposite of “in fine whack.” You can read more wacky details about “out of whack” on Quinion’s site. You could also probably spend hours there learning about other odd phrases. For example, I learned what “bafflegab” is (4).

That’s about it for negative words that have no positive counterpart. Our language is filled with remnants of older forms of English. If you’re ever feeling disgruntled about anything, just nonchalantly distract yourself by reading your dictionary.

Administrative10

This podcast was written by Bonnie Trenga, author of The Curious Case of the Misplaced Modifier, who blogs at sentencesleuth.blogspot.com.

Finally, if you'd like to submit a question for the Grammar Girl show, the voicemail line is 206-338-4475 and the email address is .....

That's all. Thanks for listening.

 


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 grunt eeazI     
v.嘟哝;作呼噜声;n.呼噜声,嘟哝
参考例句:
  • He lifted the heavy suitcase with a grunt.他咕噜着把沉重的提箱拎了起来。
  • I ask him what he think,but he just grunt.我问他在想什麽,他只哼了一声。
2 whack kMKze     
v.敲击,重打,瓜分;n.重击,重打,尝试,一份
参考例句:
  • After years of dieting,Carol's metabolism was completely out of whack.经过数年的节食,卡罗尔的新陈代谢完全紊乱了。
  • He gave me a whack on the back to wake me up.他为把我弄醒,在我背上猛拍一下。
3 plurals 89f574fdc2c9d977e10f9c70331b1eb6     
n.复数,复数形式( plural的名词复数 )
参考例句:
4 prefix 1lizVl     
n.前缀;vt.加…作为前缀;置于前面
参考例句:
  • We prefix "Mr."to a man's name.我们在男士的姓名前加“先生”。
  • In the word "unimportant ","un-" is a prefix.在单词“unimportant”中“un”是前缀。
5 prefixes 735e5189fad047c92ac9f292e73ed303     
n.前缀( prefix的名词复数 );人名前的称谓;前置代号(置于前面的单词或字母、数字)
参考例句:
  • The prefixes cis and trans are frequently applied to disubstituted cycloalkanes. 词头顺和反常用于双取代的环烷烃。 来自辞典例句
  • Why do you use so many prefixes while talking? 你说起话来,怎么这么多中缀? 来自互联网
6 apparently tMmyQ     
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎
参考例句:
  • An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽,豁然开朗。
  • He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。
7 obsolete T5YzH     
adj.已废弃的,过时的
参考例句:
  • These goods are obsolete and will not fetch much on the market.这些货品过时了,在市场上卖不了高价。
  • They tried to hammer obsolete ideas into the young people's heads.他们竭力把陈旧思想灌输给青年。
8 conundrum gpxzZ     
n.谜语;难题
参考例句:
  • Let me give you some history about a conundrum.让我给你们一些关于谜题的历史。
  • Scientists had focused on two explanations to solve this conundrum.科学家已锁定两种解释来解开这个难题。
9 tycoon EKkze     
n.有钱有势的企业家,大亨
参考例句:
  • The tycoon is on the verge of bankruptcy.那名大亨濒临破产的边缘。
  • The tycoon has many servants to minister to his needs.那位大亨有很多人服侍他。
10 administrative fzDzkc     
adj.行政的,管理的
参考例句:
  • The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
  • He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。
本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交,仅供参考,部分栏目没有内容,如果您有更合适的内容,欢迎点击提交分享给大家。
------分隔线----------------------------
TAG标签:   英语语法  Why  Gruntled  Word  英语语法  Why  Gruntled  Word
顶一下
(0)
0%
踩一下
(0)
0%
最新评论 查看所有评论
发表评论 查看所有评论
请自觉遵守互联网相关的政策法规,严禁发布色情、暴力、反动的言论。
评价:
表情:
验证码:
听力搜索
推荐频道
论坛新贴