A friend asked me this question the other day, “Have you been gruntled lately”?
I have to say, it sounded kind of kinky, so I wasn’t sure how to answer.
Instead I asked, have you?
And she said, “yes, last night I was gruntled with lobster roll and crab cakes”. She immediately knew I hadn’t the foggiest clue as to what we were talking about.
Still convinced it was kinky, I went off to figure it out what this was. I thought I’d share my new favorite word.
Gruntle
Function: transitive verb
Etymology: Back fromation of gruntled
Date: 1926
Meaning: to put in good humor.
Aaah, I get it now. Cheeky. This “back formation” bit is very curious.
Back formation, according to Merriam-Webster is a word formed by subtraction of a real or supposed affix from an already existing longer word. For example, “burgle” from “burglar”. I like it. I need to find more of these words that have sprung up into creation: disgruntled to gruntled, burglar to burgle. There have to be others. There must be others! Please let me know if you have some to share. I’m on a quest…
Bye for now,
Bel
5 Comments
August 7, 2009 at 10:31 am
Hi Bel,
Check this out! Wikipedia beats Webster; again!
http://tinyurl.com/amlrcp
-Steve
August 7, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Thing like this are super fun.
I was once told that I was “looking quite kempt today.”
August 13, 2009 at 10:54 am
Thanks, Cassandra.
Check out this Wikipedia link. It has many more of our fun words: http://tinyurl.com/amlrcp
I’ll have to remember to tell someone they are “looking quite kempt” at some point.
Cheers,
Bel
August 7, 2009 at 5:01 pm
How about “whelm”? Not over- or underwhelmed, but simply “whelmed.”
August 13, 2009 at 10:56 am
Hmmm…good question. Haven’t found that one yet. You should check out this link for other back formation words, which are lots of fun:
http://tinyurl.com/amlrcp
Thanks, Michie for your comments, for following Appingo, and for our chat the other day. I look forward to catching up again in the fall.
Cheers,
Bel