Unpaired word

An unpaired word is one that, according to the usual rules of the language, would appear to have a related word but does not. Such words usually have a prefix or suffix that would imply that there is an antonym, with the prefix or suffix being absent or opposite.

Unpaired words can be the result of one of the words falling out of popular usage, or can be created when only one word of a pair is borrowed from another language, in either case yielding an accidental gap, specifically a morphological gap. Other unpaired words were never part of a pair; their starting or ending phonemes, by accident, happen to match those of an existing morpheme, leading to a reinterpretation.

The classification of a word as "unpaired" can be problematic, as a word thought to be unattested might reappear in real-world usage or be created, for example, through humorous back-formation. In some cases a paired word does exist, but is quite rare or archaic (no longer in general use).

Such words – and particularly the back-formations, used as nonce words – find occasional use in wordplay, particularly light verse. There are a handful of notable examples in modern English – three poems and one short story.

Unpaired words in English

Word	Paired word(s)	Notes
Disambiguate	*Ambiguate	Not attested; derived from dis- + ambigu(ous) + -ate in the mid-20th century
Disconsolate	Consolate	Derived from the Latin consolatus; rarely used
Disgruntled	**Gruntled	Conscious jocular back-formation, circa 1938
Disheveled, Dishevelled	*Sheveled, *Shevelled	Not attested; from the Old French deschevelé
Feckless	Feckful	Rarely used antonym
Gormless	Gormful	Not an antonym
Indomitable	Domitable	Rarely used antonym
Ineffable	Effable	Rarely used antonym
Inept	**Ept	Conscious jocular back-formation, from 1938
Inert	*Ert	From Latin iners, meaning "without skill".
Intrepid	Trepid	Rarely used antonym
Innocent	Nocent	Not an exact antonym; rarely used
Innocuous	Nocuous	Rarely used antonym
Uncouth	**Couth	From Old English cunnan meaning "well-known" or "familiar"; rarely used
Ungainly	Gainly	Rarely used antonym
Unkempt	Kempt	Rarely used antonym
Unruly	Ruly	Rarely used antonym
Unstinting	Stinting	Rarely used antonym
Untoward	Toward	Not an antonym
Unwieldy	Wieldy	Rarely used antonym

*Words not attested or very rare in English usage.

**Jocular or facetious coinages as conscious back-formation.

See also

• Accidental gap
• Lexical gap
• Back-formation
• Defective verb – other form of lexical gap
• Fossilization (linguistics)
• Cranberry morpheme

References

• "Unpaired words" at World Wide Words
• "Absent antonyms" at 2Wheels: The Return

External links

• Words with no opposite equivalent, posted by James Briggs on April 02, 2003 at The Phrase Finder
• Brev Is the Soul of Wit, Ben Schott, April 19, 2010, 6:08 am

Examples

• Parker, J. H. "The Mystery of The Vanished Positive" in Daily Mail, Annual for Boys and Girls, 1953, Ed. French, S. Daily Mail: London pp. 42–43 – article on the topic, ending in a short poem "A Very Descript Man" using humorous opposites of unpaired words
• Jack Winter, Shouts & Murmurs, “How I Met My Wife,” The New Yorker , July 25, 1994, p. 82 uses many unpaired words for humorous effect
• Semantic Enigmas: "I once read a nonsense poem that removed the apparently negative prefixes of words like 'inept', 'inert' and 'uncouth' to make new words: 'ept', 'ert' and 'couth'. I've searched for the poem since, but no luck. Can anyone help?", The Guardian – cites "Gloss" by David McCord and "A Dream of Couth" in The Game of Words by Willard R. Espy