incent : a big SOTA

[Baker, John]

        I confess that I, too, failed to notice the first time around
that Jonathan stipulated the "-ive" word to be a noun.  That's a
significant narrowing, since "-ive" words are usually adjectives.
Still, in addition to "invect," there's alternate, direct, elect,
execute, operate, and probably a bunch of others that I haven't thought
of.  Of course, these still are not back-formations.

John Baker



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Michael McKernan
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 9:30 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: incent : a big SOTA

 Laurence Horn wrote:

>They also don't involve back-formation the way "incent" does, FWIW.
>
>LH
and
>>>  --- Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
>>>
>>>  >   Can anyone name another verb that, like
>>>  "incent,"
>>>  > is formed by dropping the "-ive" from a familiar  > English noun
>>> ?

Perhaps due to my previous flippant posts on this topic, it appears to
me that my later ex. drew no attention.  I won't pull a Popik on this,
and claim a conspiracy to ignore my humble contribution, but I will
repeat it:

What about:

invect - invective

see:

http://websters.wunderdictionary.com/dictionary/def/english/invect.html

http://websters.wunderdictionary.com/dictionary/def/english/invective.ht
ml

Not having seen the a full lexicographical treatment of either word, I
suppose that the question of 'back-formation' may be resolved by a
better authority than I have handy.  But I do think this approaches an
answer to Jonathan's query.

Michael McKernan

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org