We’ve chatted about frequentatives twice. Here and here.
I discovered a few more frequentatives that I find a little gross.
Gross Frequentative #1: spit/spatter
So there’s spit, as a normal verb. Even when spitting is talking about oil spitting while you cook or something, the word itself is just too tightly connected to a person spitting for me to feel completely pleased with it.
But spatter – I’ve never had any issues with spatter. Paint can spatter, mud can spatter, lots of things spatter.
Somehow, though, connecting spatter to spit is making me a little more grossed out by spatter.
Gross Frequentative #2: clot/clutter
Yes, you can see this one too, right? I clutter my kitchen counter. It’s just a fact. Also that little nook of floor space behind my writing desk is often cluttered.
But clutter comes from clot? Eww.
Now I know there are different sorts of clots than gooey blood clots…but are there really??? Or is ever other sort of clot a bit disgusting because we all think “blood clot”.
So now, the word “clutter”, which has always been so mild, has this looming, gross shadow to it. I simply can not connect blood clots to my counter. I can’t! I won’t.
Ugg! Too late!
Gross Frequentative #3: grunt/gruntle
It’s fun to revisit our friend gruntle, isn’t it? It means to be pleased.
Which leads to the obvious question: Why does grunting repetitively lead to being pleased.
Setting aside the obvious adult-level answer that would be inappropriate in my family-friendly email, the answer has to do with the snorting, grunting noise that hogs make while they’re rooting around looking for food. The pleased sort of grunt lets us be gruntled like a pig in the trash.
But it does make gruntled a less pleasant sounding word even that it was before. Which, frankly, wasn’t ever that pleasant.
Happy Reading!
Janice
