Adding Letters to Make New Nouns

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello.

Hello, who’s this?

This is Michael.

Hi, Michael, where are you calling from?

I am calling from Bozeman, Montana.

Bozeman, Montana.

All right.

Welcome to the show. How can we help you?

Well, I’ve got a bit of a linguistic conundrum here that has vexed me for some time, and I’m hoping maybe we can sort it out.

Okay, vexing conundrums. This is the place.

Great, great.

Well, here’s the deal.

Many times in the English language, the letters TH are tacked on to the end of a word. Usually it’s kind of a modifier to make a descriptive, maybe. Like, say, something that is wide, it has width. Or maybe something that is strong has strength, things like that.

Well, I’m comfortable with this, and in fact, I like to use it whenever I can. And I have a few favorites that I employ regularly, and every time I do, my wife looks at me like I’m crazy. Obviously, I must be doing something wrong.

What are the words that you’re adding it to that sound crazy?

Well, my favorite, I think, by far probably is if something is just really, really lame, that is lameth.

Lame.

Yeah, yeah, right? Or you’re watching television, maybe, and someone on Congress says, you know, the dumbest thing you’ve ever heard, and you just sigh and say, oh, the dump.

The dump.

Right.

Yeah, it just fits. These want to be words. But according to my wife, no, you can’t say this. This doesn’t work at all. And okay, she’s probably right if you think about conventional usage. But this started to make me wonder, is there a rule? How do we know really when you can or cannot stick T-H on the end of a word?

All right, so let’s offer you a little bit more information about this. So that th suffix, among other things, we have a couple of them in English, but this particular one comes to us from Old English, and it attaches to words to make them into nouns, all right?

Okay, okay.

It’s pretty much left behind in Old English. Most of the modern words that are created with that th suffix were kind of done in a performance-y way, kind of ironically or self-consciously, like the word coolth to refer to how cool something is in this slang for awesome or great or good. Although coolth, I mean just pleasantly low temperature also exists. But that’s modern, appeared like in the 1960s, I believe, maybe even early 1940s. But C-O-L-T-H.

And then you’ve got other words that end in like kith and mirth and month. They have a T-H at the end that aren’t really about a suffix being attached to a word to make it into a noun.

The problem is that you’re taking archaic suffix and trying to use it in modern English, and that’s why you’re getting rolled eyes from your spouse.

I have a temporal problem then.

Yeah.

You need a time machine.

I recommend a blue phone box if you find one, or a DeLorean. There are only a few time machines that we know of. Those are the two most commonly found.

We’re going to have to trade the Subaru.

That’s it.

There we go.

Yeah, there we go.

Not that many.

Oh, the phone booth from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

Sure, sure.

But in any case, yeah, so that’s your problem here. You’re trying to resuscitate this old suffix, and it just is not going to work to the modern ear in most cases. People are going to know you’re up to something.

And for those new words that you’re creating to survive, they’ve got to kind of be, how should I put this, surreptitious and not very noticeable. They’ve got to be a little more subtle.

Sure, sure. Born at the wrong time.

Okay, well, this at least puts some reason to this whole situation. I’ve been flummoxed for some time. So thank you guys for helping me dig into this a little further.

Well, it sounds like you got most of the way there yourself. We’re just providing a little guidance at the end, all right?

Well, I appreciate it much. Thanks for having me.

There was lots of fun.

Lots of, yes, I think there was fun.

Fun.

But you’ve taken a noun and you added TH to make it another noun.

Strong.

Now I’m really getting, I’ve got a clue on my head.

We had lots of funness.

Funitude.

Okay, fair enough.

All right.

Thanks, Michael.

Bye-bye.

Thanks, Michael.

Thanks very much, you guys.

Have a good one.

In regards to your wife.

Oh, yes.

Thank you.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

If you and your spouse have a linguistic difference, we’d love to hear about it. 877-929-9673 or send it in email to words@waywordradio.org.