incent : a big SOTA

[Jonathan Lighter]

Yes, John. The operative word is "not."

  JL

"Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Baker, John"
Subject: Re: incent : a big SOTA
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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 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

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