What are some "lost positives", words that exist only in their negative forms, like "disgruntled" without...

Discombobulated?
Unflappable?
Unruly?
Impeccable?

-- Bob Marshall <marshall@lmsc.lockheed.com>

If this isn't in the archive, it should be.  Off the top of my head I
can think of "couth", "ure", "advertent", "wieldy", "ept", and
"candescent".

-- Wei-Hwa Huang <whuang@cco.caltech.edu>

how does this sound for "Lost Positives"  My linguistics instructer
passed it out in class.

"How I Met My Wife" by Jack Winter,  Published July 25, 1994 - The New
Yorker

  It had been a rough day, so when I walked into the party I was very
chalant, despite my efforts to appear gruntled and consolate.

  I was furling my wieldy umbrella for the coat check when I saw her
standing alone in a corner.  She was a descript person, a woman in a
state of total array.  Her hair was kempt, her clothing shevelled, and
she moved in a gainly way.

  I wanted desperately to meet her, but I knew I'd have to make bones
about it since I was travelling cognito.  Beknownst to me, the
hostess, whom I could see both hide and hair of, was very proper, so
it would be skin off my nose if anything bad happened.  And even
though I had only swerving loyalty to her, my manners couldn't be
peccable.  Only toward and heard-of behavior would do.

  Fortunately, the embarrassment that my maculate appearance might
cause was evitable.  There were two ways about it, but the chances
that someone as flappable as I would be ept enough to become persona
grata or a sung hero were slim.  I was, after all, something to sneeze
at, someone you could easily hold a candle to, someone who usually
aroused bridled passion.

  So I decided not to risk it.  But then, all at once, for some
apparent reason, she looked in my direction and smiled in a way that I
could make heads and tails of.

  I was plussed.  It was concerting to see that she was communicado,
and it nerved me that she was interested in a pareil like me, sight
seen.  Normally, I had a domitable spirit, but, being corrigible, I
felt capacitated -- as if this were something I was great shakes at --
and forgot that I had succeeded in situations like this only a told
number of times.  So, after a terminable delay, I acted with mitigated
gall and made my way through the ruly crowd [Editor: "crow" in the
posting] with strong givings.

  Nevertheless, since this was all new hat to me and I had not time to
prepare a proptu speech, I was petuous.  Wanting to make only
called-for remarks, I started talking about the hors d'oeuvres, trying
to abuse her of the notion that I was sipid, and perhaps even bunk a
few myths about myself.

  She responded well, and I was Mayed that she considered me a savory
character who was up to some good.  She told me who she was.  "What a
perfect nomer," I said, advertently.  The conversation became more and
more choate, and we spoke at length to much avail.  But I was
defatigable, so I had to leave at a godly hour.  I asked if she wanted
to come with me.  To my delight, she was committal.  We left the party
together and have been together ever since.  I have given her my love,
and she has requited it.

-- Elisabeth Goldberg <duh@expert.cc.purdue.edu>

Even more fun than single-purpose words . . .

There are a bunch of words in the English language that are negated,
but have no nonnegated form.  For example:

John wasn't disgruntled at you!  In fact, he was very gruntled!
            ===========                               ========

There's also

(dis)appointed  (yes, there's appointed, but it doesn't mean the same
                thing)
(dis)parage
(in)ept

and a bunch of others.  I know there are many more but I can't recall
them right now.  Any takers?

-- Mike Soss <soss@fas.harvard.edu>

In article <3letb5$ir6@barracuda.dadd.ti.com> mns1@.rtc.sc.ti.com
writes:
>incandescent
>inflammable

Along those lines, don't forget

introduce
inside
distance
exact
under
uncle

OK, no more sarcasm.  The point is that to have a "negative" word, it
is not enough that the word begin with a syllable recognizable as a
"negative" prefix.  It is necessary that the rest of the word once had
some meaning that the prefix actually negates.  (It isn't necessary
that the rest of the word still exists as an English word, or even
that it ever was a word; it's enough that it once existed or is a
cognate of a word that once existed.)

A lot of the proposed "lost positives" don't fit this pattern.
Prefixes such as "in-", "ex-", and "dis-" don't always mean "not";
sometimes they indicate direction of motion, for example.  At other
times they seem to be used as intensifiers, or perhaps even in the
sense of a double negative.

For example, the root of "disgruntle" is "gruntle," which once meant
to grumble.  But disgruntled workers are not "not grumbling"; if
anything, they are grumbling worse than before.

(As a side note, Webster's 9th Collegiate cites "gruntled" as a
20th-century back-formation meaning the opposite of "disgruntled"
---an interesting twist on the story.)

Or consider "disturb."  This comes from "dis-" + "turbare."  "Turbare"
means to throw into disorder.  But something that is "disturbed" isn't
put back in order; it's also in disorder, perhaps even more so.

On the other hand, a word like "unruly" really does seem to be an
unpaired negative.  The "-ruly" part comes from "reuly," meaning
disciplined, but the word "reuly" didn't survive into Modern English
in any form I know of, and the prefix certainly negates the sense of
that root.

-- David A. Karr <karr@cs.cornell.edu>

In article <1995Mar28.120104.803@skynet>, Bob Marshall wrote
>Discombobulated?
>Unflappable?
>Unruly?
>Impeccable?

discomfit disfigure dismantle feckless immaculate inert inevitable
intransigent nonchalant nonconformist nonplussed null reckless
unfathomable ungainly unkempt unparallel(l)ed unwieldy

Someone whose name I can't remember wondered why we never speak of a
"strapful" gown.  Here are some more "-less" words which lack
counterparts in "-ful".  This is just a small selection from a large
class of words.

ageless backless barkless baseless bottomless boundless breathless
changeless childless collarless dauntless deedless flightless formless
fruitless godless gutless heartless homeless jobless legless limitless
measureless moonless pointless relentless sleepless speechless
spineless topless ("topful" doesn't count as an antonym) witless

But not
ruthless (the positive, ruthful, exists)
inept   (the positive is "apt")
insipid (the positive is "sapid")
unearth (the positive, earth (= to hide something in earth) exists)

-- Richard Sabey <rsa@swindon.gpsemi.com>

In article <D6MDBA.uv@lincoln.gpsemi.com> rsa@swindon.gpsemi.com
writes:
>discomfit disfigure dismantle feckless immaculate inert inevitable
>intransigent nonchalant nonconformist nonplussed null reckless
>unfathomable ungainly unkempt unparallel(l)ed unwieldy

"Evitable," "conformist," "fathomable," and "wieldy" are all in
Webster's 9th New Collegiate.

"Null" is very interesting.  It doesn't *look* like a negated word;
but it turns out, etymologically speaking, that it is: "ne-" + "ullus"
("any").  On the other hand, the meaning seems to have changed from
the original; I can't think of any uses that mean "not any."

>Here are some more "-less" words which lack counterparts in "-ful".

I don't believe "-ful" ("full of" or "having") is the unique opposite
of "-less" ("not having").  You can also use "-ed" or "-y" to mean
"having."

>ageless backless barkless baseless bottomless boundless breathless

aged backed based bottomed bounded

>changeless childless collarless dauntless deedless flightless formless

changed collared formed

>fruitless godless gutless heartless homeless jobless legless limitless

fruited gutsy hearty legged limited

>measureless moonless pointless relentless sleepless speechless
>spineless

measured moony pointed sleepy spined

>topless ("topful" doesn't count as an antonym) witless

topped witty

Admittedly, many of these are not exact antonyms, for example
"fruited" contradicts the definition of "fruitless" meaning "lacking
fruit," but not the more common use meaning "unsuccessful," and
"topped" contradicts "not having a top," but I can't imagine using
this to denote the fact that someone is wearing a shirt or other
article of clothing that covers the chest.  Webster's 9th limits the
use of "formed" to the description of living matter.  "Spined" might
be the opposite of "spineless" when discussing the structure of plants
or animals, but not when discussing a person's character.  "Hearty,"
which suggests "honesty, warmth, and exuberance in displaying
feeling," is not quite opposite to "heartless" = "lacking feeling,
cruel."

Also, I notice that "relentless" is a synonym of "unrelenting," but I
didn't find "relenting" Webster's.  Another missing positive?  Or is
it in some other dictionary?

-- David A. Karr <karr@cs.cornell.edu>

Some of the others follow a different pattern
"boundless"/"bounded"
"dauntless"/"daunted"
"deedless"/"deeded"  (OK, maybe not :-) )
"limitless"/"limited"
"measureless"/"measured" (maybe.. I'm not certain on the meaning of
"measureless".  Here I mean "measured" as in "a measured mile")

-- Matthew Russotto <russotto@wanda.pond.com>