Unpaired Words

You can be disgruntled or unkempt, but can you be gruntled or kempt? Not in this century you can’t. But if you go back 500 years, these words were not unpaired. It does appear there are suffix examples too. You can be reckless but not reckful, rueful not rueless, ruthless (I wonder where Ruth is?), not ruthful.

Comments

[Robert E. Malchman]

I frequently find myself wishing greater becility on others.

BTW, "ruth" means "compassion for the misery of others." Given our world, you can see how its fallen into desuetude. Maybe you can resurrect it and help it become suetudinous again?

[Daniel Dern]

And while "hinged" is a word, it doesn't feel like it's the opposite of "unhinged."

"combobulated" appears to be an accepted, albeit quasi-bogus, backformation.

And I have yet to hear any use of "feckful" ("feckfull"?) ("feckled"?)

[Robert E. Malchman]

@Daniel Dern "Feckless" is from the perfect tense "feci" in Latin, meaning "I did." So if one is "feckless," one did nothing.

[Peggy J Coquet]

Ah, but have you seen:
*My Dream*

This is my dream,
It is my own dream,
I dreamt it.
I dreamt that my hair was kempt.
Then I dreamt that my true love unkempt it.

https://allpoetry.com/poem/8496599-My-Dream-by-Ogden-Nash