When Did People Start Saying “Unthaw” to Mean “Thaw”?

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Well, hey, this is Robin from Jacksonville, Florida.

Hey, Robin, welcome.

Hi, Robin, what can we do for you?

I, I’ve had, I’ve wondered this for quite a while.

And I overheard somebody in the grocery store the other day.

So it brought this all back.

My parents grew up in very small southern Utah towns.

And so I didn’t know if it was from there.

But we had always used the word unthaw.

And so I wasn’t until probably in my 40s that somebody corrected me and said, no, you don’t need to go home to unthaw the hamburger.

You just need to thaw it.

And so this was a big revelation to me.

And they said that that was actually an oxymoron.

But everybody in my family has always said that.

I felt kind of embarrassed, so I started learning to use the word thaw.

But just the other day, I was in line somewhere, and I overheard somebody say it also.

So I think it’s pretty common, but I’m not sure, and just wanted to know more about that.

So you might say unthaw, U-N-T-H-A-W, the frozen hamburger, instead of thaw, T-H-A-W, the hamburger,

Meaning to unfreeze it.

Right, or unthaw anything.

The car engine needs to unthaw.

Right, so warm it up.

You got it.

You’re not alone, Robin, if that’s any consolation.

It’s not just you, and it’s not just your family,

And it’s not just that person in line.

Unthaw has been in regular and repeated use for more than 400 years.

How about that?

Oh, that’s exciting.

Yeah.

Wow.

Unthaw is such an interesting word that it’s one of a set of verbs that has been studied by linguists.

Although we were taught when we were in school that un, the prefix un, un, negates or inverts whatever it’s attached to,

There’s also another thing that it does.

Sometimes it simply emphasizes the action.

That makes sense.

Yeah.

So there was a group of verbs in the 1600s, 15th and 1600s, where they didn’t need the un, but the un was added.

And unthaw was one of those.

For example, you might have unboundless.

Well, if someone’s energy was unboundless, it was also boundless.

You don’t need the un.

What is happening with that un?

It’s emphasizing the boundlessness, right?

Or if somebody is unhelpless, they’re helpless.

Why do we have the un?

Well, we’re emphasizing the helplessness.

And they’re unrestless or unremorseless or unwitless.

All of these uns there aren’t negating and they’re not inverting.

They’re emphasizing what they’re attached to.

Okay.

Yeah.

So, Robin, there was no reason for you to come unraveled in the grocery line.

That’s another one of those words.

Yeah.

Well, and I think it’s because I explained to the lady, I said, I’m going to tell you something that somebody told me about 20 years ago.

But you can just say Thaw and not Untaw.

Yeah.

And she looked incredulous because I think you feel kind of embarrassed.

Like, wow.

And I taught it to the kids, too.

So anyway.

Yeah, Thaw is a great choice.

There’s nothing wrong with Thaw.

I would use thaw. If you want to use thaw, go ahead and use thaw. It probably is the better

Choice, certainly in formal writing. If you’re talking on television or writing for an audience,

Definitely use thaw. But in everyday speech, unthaw does the job and has for hundreds of years.

There are other words like this in everyday speech that maybe haven’t occurred to you besides

Ravel and unravel, meaning the same thing. There’s also unpeel and peel. Do you unpeel an orange or

Do you peel it? Oh my gosh. Oh, that’s another one. Do you loosen a screw or do you unloosen it?

Okay. And you’ll find in every language, we have a ton of these. And now that I’ve pointed it out,

You’re going to see them everywhere. And just remember that un isn’t only negating or inverting.

Sometimes it’s emphasizing. And that’s what we weren’t necessarily taught in grade school when

We were taught about prefixes. So for some reason, we’re not taught that early on in our education.

So we have to learn it as adults.

It’s sometimes un-emphasizes.

Okay.

Now, I have purposely not done this.

If I go now, look up in the dictionary, un-thaw, will it be there?

Yes.

Yes, it will.

Okay.

It’ll probably be marked as informal or a dialect.

Okay.

Very good.

Well, thanks, guys.

This is very informative.

Our pleasure, Robin.

Thanks for calling.

Take care.

Glad to help.

You betcha.

Bye-bye.

I got that list of unverbs from the 15 and 1600s from the linguist Larry Horn.

That’s H-O-R-N.

And he has written at length on the topic of unverbs.

And so if you search his name and the word unverb, you’ll come up with some of his great writing on the subject.

And you’ll learn that there’s more to un-attached to verbs than just negating.

It’s really interesting stuff.

There always is, isn’t there?

There absolutely is.

We should do a show about that.

Great idea.

And you can help us out. Give us a call 877-929-9673 with your language questions or send them to words@waywordradio.org.