Another Plug for A Word A Day

I mention this newsletter occasionally; if you don’t subscribe, I highly recommend that you do. This issue contains an interesting list of uncommon words derived from common words. https://wordsmith.org/ issue 1124. Or go here and look under January 2024 for Forgotten Positives. The issue has a bit more content, but here’s the list:

My husband frequently had to wait for me to leave in the morning because I hadn’t sufficiently sheveled myself — my usual morning condition being very disheveled! I would yell from the bedroom, “I’m still sheveling myself?”
-Sue Hoffman, Stanley, New Mexico (suebhoff58 gmail.com)

I have long used the word ept to mean only basically competent, neither inept, nor adept. In college, I was quoted as saying “I’m ept; take me dancing!” I still stand by that self-assessment.
-Lisa LePome, Boulder, Colorado (lepome centurylink.net)

I would love to see “hinged” popularized as a counterpart of “unhinged” to describe a person’s mental state.
-Antoinette Cheung, Vancouver, Canada (acheung42 gmail.com)

“Othersome” … anything but “bothersome” of which I have plenty.
-Andy Vetromile, Marietta, Georgia (fnordy1 yahoo.com)

My father, not a native speaker of English, had been convinced as a child learning English that being telligent would be better than being intelligent, since “in” seemed to imply a negative to him (which I find understandable, given some of the patterns in the English language).
-Irith (“ee-reet”) Bloom, Los Angeles, California

There is an IT services company named Genuity. If ingenuity means clever, I always felt that genuity must mean not clever.
-Bill Duncan, Lowell, Massachusetts (wrd pmpartners.com)

I think the movie was Private Benjamin where a training sergeant told the trainees that “Most of these grenades are inert but some are ert.”
-Julian Thomas, Rochester, New York (jt jt-mj.net)

Not so seriously, I have enjoyed nerding out and sometimes suggesting to Virginia Symphony colleagues that we can’t rehearse together until we have first hearsed.
-Tom Reel, Norfolk, Virginia (tom.reel cox.net)

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I would like to propose a counterpart for insolent: solent, meaning pleasant and inoffensive in manner, never rude or overbearing. As a teacher, I always wanted to frame classroom rules in a positive way, if possible. Instead of saying “Insolent behavior will not be tolerated,” I would prefer to say “Solent behavior will be appreciated.”
-Teri Henson, Livermore, California (hensontd comcast.net)

When my father came home from work in a good mood, my mother would say “You’re looking gruntled this evening!”
-Jennifer Arthur, San Francisco, California (jennifer arthurassociates.net)

A term I use to describe the biscuit I give my dog to “guard the house” when I’m going out is a preward.
-Roger Ferguson, Portland, Oregon (roger10001 comcast.net)

We have the verb trump meaning for a particular idea, playing card, exercise of power, etc. to come to the fore and take precedence over others. I would suggest detrump be for such an item to fall into disgrace and possibly be sentenced to prison.
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)

Many years ago in a magazine at my parents’ house I saw a delightful poem only a few words from which I could remember. The wonders of googling produced the following:

Gloss
I know a little man both ept and ert.
An intro-? extro-? No, he’s just a vert.
Sheveled and couth and kempt, pecunious, ane,
His image trudes upon the ceptive brain.

When life turns sipid and the mind is traught,
The spirit soars as I would sist it ought.
Chalantly then, like any gainly goof,
My digent self is sertive, choate, loof.
(David McCord; The Oxford Book of American Light Verse; 1979.)-Ardeth Lobet, Auckland, New Zealand (ardeth gosail.org)