It’s 7:30 a.m. I literally just woke up because my wife needs to make sure the teenager gets up to catch the bus to school. And as I lay here trying to accept the world as it is, with the current economic and political climate, as I do every morning, I find myself needing to explain to people that “unsweetened” and “unleaded” serve essentially the same mechanical linguistic function: they describe something to which the relevant substance was not added. Sweetener was not added to the beverage. Lead was not added to the gasoline.
As the kids mill out of the house complaining about school and the general condition of their overtaxed lives, I wonder whether you have ever used the word “unlead.”
No. I would venture not.
In fact, I would bet good money that you have never used that word, nor would you consider it a shortening or clipping of “unleaded.”
Looks like the teenager has finally departed. The irony that she is going to a public school where she will be taught the nuance of the English language in an academic capacity does not escape me, particularly since I apparently have to deconstruct an insult aimed at me just to demonstrate how stupid it is.
The word “unintelligent” possesses the same basic construction as “unleaded” and “unsweetened.” The prefix “un-” can indicate the absence or negation of something. “Unintelligent” means not intelligent. “Unsweetened” means not sweetened. “Unleaded” means not leaded.
And yet, apparently, somewhere along the way, I have been placed in the position of explaining basic English morphology to someone who thought they had discovered some devastating linguistic observation.
I now sit on the toilet taking my morning constitutional and wondering why I want to insult you in the meanest way possible. Someone has already told me that I am being arrogant and mean, and, honestly, I cannot think of a compelling reason to disagree with them.
But I am going to do it anyway.