Monday 4 November 2024

Are You Gruntled?

The English language is a movable feast and i recently found out that the words 'gruntled', 'have ruth', 'feck' and 'gormful' are actual things meaning 'Happy', 'compassionate', 'effective' and 'enlightened' but their more pessimistic antonym's are more familiar as in disgruntled, ruthless, feckless and gormless.  
Back in the 17th Century you could feel 'respair' and have hope but now we seem to feel 'despair' and it's opposite has fallen out of the Dictionary.
There is an 'eucatastrophe' or a sudden and unexpected turn of events for the good which is the direct opposite of a catastrophe and 'eustress' is a situation with a benefit rather than a situation with a bad outcome which is distress.
Where i thought the words were examples of an unpaired word, they aren't and its just that the positive opposites have fallen away so we should bring them back again as we may feel a little more consolate and grunted.

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