WORDS

Love it! I wonder if anyone in high places could entice anyone in other high places to declare November 6th as official "Recrudescence Day" ? It sounds grand enough

 

I'd be gruntled... well, isn't that the opposite of disgruntled?

 

I know your comment was light hearted but for those interested in the formation of disgruntled, dis is an intensifier but now almost non existent apart from here. Grunt is a sound of displeasure and le is a frequentative. A couple of other frequentatives to illustrate the point: spark + le = sparkle, game + le —> gamble

 

Wow - thank you for that. Three short sentences enlarged my knowledge of my mother tongue by about 1000%.

Nice to see you back, too.

 

Hi @Ben Cotto . I guess the confusion with a "dis" prefix is because often it means the opposite of its use as an intensifier - as in "dissatisfied", for instance... How do I know which "dis" I'm looking at??

 

Aha, there is the confusion, my dictionary only describes "grunt" as a noise such as pigs make, which I'm supposing when they find an apple...

 

Make sure you have plenty of loo paper handy.

 

As a bit of a non sequitur, did anybody listen to this programme on Radio 4 last night?

BBC Radio 4 - Limelight, Exemplar - Series 1, Exemplar - Episode 1

A five part thriller based on forensic analysis of sound recordings and made by people who in real life deal with the subject. Words and sounds and what they convey.

 

I only knew recrudescence as applied to virus infections. Shingles being the perfect example.
Lays dormant for years then erupts again, usually when your defences are down.

 

You know you’re in for trouble when the GP says, trousers down, pop onto the couch, face the wall, knees up to your chin. Yep, he said, it’s definitely shingles but I have never seen it there before.

 

Ouch!!!