Word Woman

Welcome to another wild and woolly installment of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! This is the tenth and final entry in our series of words which only seem to appear in the negative. That is not to say, however, that there are no more of these words to be found in the English language, but simply that ten will be a sufficient sample for our purposes. And the Word of the Week is:


Disgruntled:

Pronunciation: \dis-ˈgrən-t^əl\

Function: transitive verb

Inflected Form(s): dis·grun·tled; dis·grun·tling \-ˈgrənt-liŋ, -ˈgrən-t^əl-iŋ\

Etymology: dis- + gruntle to grumble, from Middle English gruntlen, frequentative of grunten to grunt

Date: 1682

: to make ill-humored or discontented —usually used as a participial adjective disgruntled crew — Flannery O'Connor>

"disgruntled." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2010.

Merriam-Webster Online. 25 June 2010

but has anyone ever heard the word:

Gruntled:
Pronunciation: \ˈgrən-t^əl\

Function: transitive verb

Inflected Form(s): grun·tled; grun·tling \ˈgrənt-liŋ, ˈgrən-t^əl-iŋ\

Etymology: back-formation from disgruntle

Date: 1926

: to put in a good humor gruntled with a good meal and good conversation — W. P. Webb>

"gruntled." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2010.

Merriam-Webster Online. 25 June 2010

Example: Edward was disgruntled after a long, difficult day at the office, but a night out on the town with his charming wife soon had him gruntled again.