English is such a peach.

https://lemmy.ca/post/18140506

English is such a peach. - Lemmy.ca

It’s bullshit that the opposite of “impeachable” is “unimpeachable” instead of “peachable”

These are called orphaned negatives and English has loads of them. A great article about them is here: stephenliddell.co.uk/…/a-gruntled-look-at-orphan-…

As a slight tangent, a similar peculiarity in English (which I don’t know of a name for) is where you can use the opposite words for similar actions, e.g. you can chop a tree down and then chop it up.

A Gruntled look at Orphan Negatives.

One of my post popular posts ever was 102 great words that aren’t in English but should be! and I’ve written lots on different aspects of both English language Words we still use from&nb…

Stephen Liddell

Great link! I love the little story in there.

I actually use “shevelled” alongside many other words which to my mind “should logically exist” - for example, at the weekend I dismantled and then remantled a wall in my garden.

Good one, and you now have a mantled wall!