A Comic Version of the Previous Post

No comments from me. Read and enjoy.

Here’s a link to the previous post. It’s much more academic. https://writing-rag.com/?p=6394

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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)

Email of the Week — Brought to you by LACRAWESOME — Wit you can wear >
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)

This is about texting, which I do, though my field is more formal writing, and since people pay attention to my writing, I feel responsible to obey all the rules. What do you think about the teacher’s statement at the end of the strip?

I mentioned this ambiguity recently. Here’s another example. The thread continues for several days, so follow the link and click the “next” icon

below the strip to see more.

The cat and the dog treat the verb “serve” differently.

Gotta read the whole strip today; no lesson.