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Lost positives

swill453
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Lost positives

#371597

Postby swill453 » December 31st, 2020, 11:25 am

Interesting Tweet from Susie Dent:

Some more lost positives, because we could do with them: once upon a time you could be described not just as kempt, couth, gormful, wieldy, ept, and ruthful, but also as gainly, ruly, committal, consolate, toward, mantled, and descript. You could also be a persona grata.

Scott.

GrahamPlatt
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Re: Lost positives

#371643

Postby GrahamPlatt » December 31st, 2020, 1:08 pm

I’m very gruntled with that. Most of them seem to be in contemporary use in their negative form with a prefix of un- or dis- or non-, but ruthful? I had to look that one up (rueful, woeful), and it doesn’t seem to have a negative form.

swill453
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Re: Lost positives

#371651

Postby swill453 » December 31st, 2020, 1:31 pm

GrahamPlatt wrote:I’m very gruntled with that. Most of them seem to be in contemporary use in their negative form with a prefix of un- or dis- or non-, but ruthful? I had to look that one up (rueful, woeful), and it doesn’t seem to have a negative form.

I assumed the negative she was referring to was ruthless.

Scott.


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