Ok, this is purely for my own fun….
I like words. I like alliterating audacious adjectives, adroitly. Every once in a while, however, I want to use a word … that is not a word. You can’t find it in the dictionary. For example, if something can be redundant, doesn’t that imply it could originally just be dundant? Makes sense to me, but no such word.
And what about words that sound like opposites, but mean the same thing? For example, if you look up refurbish in the dictionary, you get the same definition as for the word furbish. Should that be? Let’s burn one of those words. But if we do, we’ll discover the ‘burned word’ to be both flammable and inflammable, simultaneously. Yep, flammable and inflammable mean the exact same thing! (Now that seems redundant to me!).
What about how words are spelled? Is “phonetic” really the best way to spell phonetic? Wouldn’t it make more sense to spell it fonetik? Who thought of that?
Then there are those head-scratcher words: What word has 4 vowels but just 1 consonant? (answer is below).
Another puzzler: What word has 2 definitions that are exact opposites? (see below, also).
I guess I could go on and on, but that would be superfluous. Instead, I’ll be just a little bit fluous. Hey, don’t look that word up! It’s gotta be in the dictionary.
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Answers to puzzles:
1. The 4-vowel/1-consonant word is: eerie. Which begs the question: “Isn’t it eerie that eerie has more vowels in it than Lake Erie has fish in it? I think so.
2. The word that has 2 exactly opposite definitions is cleave. def: (1) to split or sever, as a butcher would cleave meat. (2) adhere strongly to/stick fast to, as in Genesis 2:24, “A man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
Ok, English 101 is now in session.
Let Other Things Go 