It’s because the im isn’t a prefix but part of the word. (It was originally spelt empeche)
this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2024
239 points (100.0% liked)
Showerthoughts
33281 readers
1006 users here now
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS
If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Ackshully:
Looking at the etymology, impeach is from old-french "empecher", and "em" was an alternative form of the old-french prefix "en".
And "empecher" is itself is derived from the late latin "impedicare", which uses the Latin prefix "im" from which the French prefix comes. And is prefixed to "predica".
So it it is a prefix.
Of course, the latin (and French) prefixes aren't used to indicate opposite meaning, like "in" often is. But that's just yet more bullshit.
It’s basically from back in the day when there were still dinosaur peaches large enough to contain a badly-behaving consul.
To be fair it was a prefix in the Latin word that it's ultimately derived from. We still treat it a little like a prefix when we use the im- part of the related "import" like a prefix, as we also have "export" and "transport"
It's bullshit that the opposite of "important" is "unimportant" instead of "portant"
Should be exportant, obviously
disportn’t
disportn't've
Also, "gruntled" should be the opposite of "disgruntled".
It is, check the OED.
Well I'll be damned. I've used it as a word regardless, lol, but my spell check still hasn't gotten the memo apparently.
I find this whole conversation whelming.
Stay whelmed.
So, would you say you’re more gruntled now?
You’re not fully gruntled till you’re zestfully gruntled.
And something that has not been debunked is still bunk.
Ehh, at least we don't randomly assign every noun one of three genders, and have to memorize them all in order to use the correct form of "the" when speaking about it.
Just wait until you hear about declension
Did that just happen?
Now do flammable!
Inflammable means flammable? What a country!
These are called orphaned negatives and English has loads of them. A great article about them is here: https://stephenliddell.co.uk/2021/03/17/a-gruntled-look-at-orphan-negatives/
As a slight tangent, a similar peculiarity in English (which I don't know of a name for) is where you can use the opposite words for similar actions, e.g. you can chop a tree down and then chop it up.
Reminds me of folding cardboard boxes. If you are taking a flat piece and make a box of it, are you folding a box or unfolding the cardboard. Or both. And when you do the reverse, you do the same, do you not?
Not exactly the same, but that also reminds me of autoantonyms or Janus words. The word dust can be used to describe adding dust or removing dust, for example.
Contronyms is another great one. English is so tuitive.
The most consistent thing about English is how inconsistent it is!
Which is to be expected when you have a Germanic language that is so heavily influenced by Latin languages.
Well you guys can peach me any day you'd like. 👄
🍑
u gotsed peached
I don't hate it. Pretty gusting if you ask me.
I am demused. I can't express my unappointment
The existence of "amused" implies the existence of "bimused", "homomused", "panmused" and possibly even more
I'm metromused
Reminds me of that Doofenschmirtz line: "Ah, Perry the Platypus... As always, your timing is impeckable. And by that I mean COMPLETELY PECKABLE!"
expeachable
How do you peach someone?
Carefully
Because im is not a typo of un
Impossible
Peachy!
Don't be surprised. Such quirks are unimpossible in English... /s