atw: Re: What word to use when ...

Howard.Silcock@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:
On Tue, 26 Sep 2006 15:43:44 +1000,  wrote:
> I can't think of many verbs that actually can take the prefix
> un-. The only ones that come to mind are 'untie' and 'uncover'.
>
> I'd never thought about it before, but this leads to an
> interesting (but almost useless) observation. The forms
> 'untied' and 'uncovered' can be interpreted EITHER as
> participles formed from these two verbs OR as negated forms of
> the participles 'tied' and 'covered'.
>
> But these two interpretations correspond to slightly different
> meanings. The second form, I think, would be applied to
> something that had *never* been tied or covered. So an 'untied
> shoelace' in the first interpretation would be, for example,
> one on a shoe you'd just taken off, but in the other sense
> it'd be a 'virgin' shoelace - straight from the factory and
> never been tied.
>
> For mathematicians, this illustrates the fact that the
> operations of negation and forming a past participle do not
> 'commute' : un((tie)d) isn't the same as (un(tie))d.
>
> How's that for a truly pointless observation? Please indulge
> me - I need some light relief from a mountain of editing work
> ...
>
> Howard
>
> PS Actually, now that I think about it some more, there are
> plenty of un- verbs. Uninstall, undo, unwind, ... I mustn't be
> thinking clearly. I definitely need a break.
>

Howard, what you need is a bitter dis   (a bittadis, a bittadat)

You need to discover   some time to disengage, 
disappear and generally diss-out...

Don't un, dis!    Get your shoelaces distied, diswind and head for the beach..

Diss off and relax !  

Oh what a language...

--Peter M



 



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