speaking of ackcorns

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Jul 19, 2005, at 12:33 AM, Bruce Hunter wrote:

> ... The following just came across another list...
>
>> Suffice it to day that he didn't care about doing a decent job and
>> had a very poor attitude at completing the  > work he was paid to
>> do. Good riddens!
>
> Which, to me, has the added "charm" of being, in a sense, almost
> right.

well, it has the "rid" part right (phonologically and semantically).
the question is: where does the "-ens" come from?  it could just be a
re-spelling, based on the failure to perceive the noun suffix "-ance"
in /rId at ns/ -- though this spelling would suggest a pronunciation
with /z/ rather than /s/.  or is there some model word or words that
would supply a semantics for "-ens"?  if not, the spelling is in the
direction of greater semantic opacity.

there are significant numbers of relevant google hits.

arnold