Prefix Synonyms

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, hi. This is Linda calling from Marietta, Georgia.

Oh, Linda, how you doing?

My pleasure. Okay.

Long ago, I was fortunate enough to have an inspiring English teacher who gave us a puzzle that she said it might take us the rest of our life to solve. The puzzle involved prefixes. N-I-N-U-N and M-I-M. And she told us that generally the use of these prefixes reverses the meaning of the word it’s attached to, like possible and impossible and believable and unbelievable. But she told us that there are five words that adding a prefix does not reverse the meaning. And she gave us one. Flammable and inflammable. And she says there’s four others and she said go find them.

Well, in the course of decades I have only found one, ravel and unravel.

Oh, that’s a good one. Can you tell me the others?

Linda decades. Decades. Wow and what was your teacher’s name?

Mrs. Martha Hayes. She was a beloved English teacher.

Oh, that’s great.

So Mrs. Martha Hayes has sent you out into the world. Have you talked to any of your fellow students about this?

Well, no, I haven’t been back there in so long, but I’ve asked many, many friends, and no one can come up with anything.

Sounds like the hero’s journey, the hero’s quest to capture the crystal that can take back to the palace to release the princess. And it just dawned on me, the very ones will be Martha and Grant.

Well, yeah. My Martha has a glint in her eye right now. I think she knows.

Have you got it, Martha?

Well, I’ve got a couple of them. I mean, how about loosen and unloosen?

Okay. You loosen your stays and you unloosen them as well. You can unloose the dogs or loose the dogs.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Loose the dogs. Unloose the dogs. Yeah. Gotcha.

And the other one that I’m thinking of is valuable and invaluable.

Oh, yes, ma’am.

That one I love because both of those words are usable words, valuable and invaluable. How about peel and unpeel?

Unpeel and orange and I peel and orange?

Yes, yes.

Now I see it because it would be, I could see you using either of those words, couldn’t you?

Here’s another one. It doesn’t fit your prefixes, but it’s the same story. You can bone a chicken or you can de-bone a chicken.

Oh, beautiful.

Yes, being a cook, yes.

So now we’re over five, aren’t we?

Yeah.

Aren’t we up to six?

Yes, absolutely.

But you know my favorite is valuable and invaluable.

That’s a good one, right?

Oh, I love it.

Wait, did we do thaw and unthaw?

That is so much like flammable and inflammable.

Yeah.

-huh, -huh.

Oh, thank you so much because I was running out of time to complete this quiz.

Well, we just bought you some time, I guess, then, huh?

Now you’ve got a new mission.

What’s your new mission going to be?

Give us another puzzle on the air sometime, a long one.

Okay.

All righty.

Linda, thank you so much.

Well, I’m glad we could offer valuable information or invaluable information. Every week you give me valuable information.

Oh, thank you.

And bless Mrs. Martha Hayes’ heart.

Oh, indeed.

Take care now.

Bye-bye.

Thanks, Linda.

Bye-bye.

Yeah, we did talk about thaw and unthaw not too long ago on the show.

Is that six of those we picked up?

That’s several.

Did you count bone to bone?

Yeah, yeah.

Language is curious. Each word kind of stands on its own, doesn’t it? And takes its own path and doesn’t necessarily fraternize with its etymological kin or etymological family, right?

Yeah, well, in the case of the in and the un, sometimes they’re, or the in anyway, it’s an intensifier rather than a negator.

Yeah, because there’s several different kinds of prefix that are spelled exactly the same, but they have different roots and different meanings.

So what’s the thing that you heard decades ago and you’re still wondering about?

Grant and I can try to help. Call us 877-929-9673 or send those emails to words@waywordradio.org.