unrehabable

[Wilson Gray]

On Jun 16, 2005, at 1:13 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: unrehabable
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>
> Yeah, but no " *irrehabable. "
>
> JL

For which I am grateful.

-Wilson

>
> Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:
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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
> Subject: Re: unrehabable
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>
> On Thu, 16 Jun 2005 10:27:57 -0400, Laurence Horn
> wrote:
>
>> At 5:35 AM -0700 6/16/05, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>> _Fox & Friends_ reports that Terri Schiavo's autopsy shows her to
>>> have been "unrehabable." An attorney for the Schindler family
>>> agreed that she was "unrehabable."
>>>
>>> About 25 hits on Google, 1998 being the year to beat.
>>
>> Plus one for "unrehabbable", which is the way I'd probably have
>> spelled it on the basis of my usual double-the-consonant-for-stress
>> algorithm. (I'd pronounce "(un)rehab(b)able" on the antepenult root,
>> although "rehab" itself gets primary stress.) And of course both
>> residences and people can be (un)rehab(b)able, in slightly different
>> ways.
>
> Without the "un-" prefix, Usenet has "rehabbable" back to 1992. Some
> later variants: "rehab-able" (1994), "rehabable" (1996), and
> "rehabible"
> (1996). There's also "non-rehab-able" (1999), "non-rehabbable" (2000),
> and "nonrehabable" (2004).
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
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