*   *   *   *
  LOGOLOG
a weblog of wordplay by Eric Harshbarger

Incomparable

I'm amused by pairs of English words that look like they should be comparative and superlative forms of a base word but aren't; either because the base word, in fact, means something unrelated, or it is not a word at all.

Here are a few examples:

  • PRIER and PRIEST are comparative forms of PRY,
  • SHOULDER and SHOULDEST are not comparative forms of SHOULD,
  • and my favorite: CONQUER and CONQUEST are not comparative forms of the string CONQU.

-- Eric

[5 May 2019]
   
LOGOLOG


Archive
 Box Office Pa...
 Anti-Palindro...1
 Palindromic S...
 Dos Equis
 Box Office Pa...
 My Initial Su...
 Incomparable1
 Rock & Roll1
 Aye, Qs!
 This & That
 It's All Abou...1
 Non-Crashing ...
 Pseudo-palind...2
 Box Office Cu...
 All In A Row1
 Redividers
 Chemical Symb...1
 Over 636 Pali...2
 Omino Font
 Front Hook: S1
 History of Bo...1
 Front Hook: R
 Well, Moviego...6
 Front Hook: Q
 Front Hook: P
 Front Hook: O
 Front Hook: N1
 Front Hook: M
 Front Hook: L
 Front Hook: K
 Front Hook: J1
 Front Hook: I2
 Front Hook: H4
 Front Hook: G3
 Front Hook: F
 Front Hook: E
 Front Hook: D
 Front Hook: C
 Front Hook: B1
 Front Hook: A
 Multiple Solu...1
 And The Nomin...
 I want a cut ...2
 Stew-word-shi...1
 Scrabble Play...
 The answer is...2
 Pangrams and ...
 Pangrams and ...
 Secret Weapon...
 Colorful Citi...2
 Song, Song, S...2
 Near-Pangramm...2
 Favorite Numb...3
 Periodic Tabl...1
 Body Of Music...
 Filmed In Tec...3
 Cryptic Femal...1
 Colorful Film...1
 Elemental Bod...5
 Ambigrams Rev...1
 Calculated Wo...2
 Teacher Torto...2
 True Story
 Polly-Gone
 Sending My Re...
 A-B-C-D-ary1
 Word Dice3
 That Does It!3
 Lexomino Puzz...
 Morse Code Pa...5
 Bringing Ingo...7
 NIN
 Dot, Dot, Das...2
 Repeated lett...3
 Palindromic P...7
 Palindromic P...
 Sick Pun4
 Typesetting 2...2
 Heterogrammic...5
 Plurals1
 Phoneys1
 What is a "wo...
 Hollywood Nam...
 Front Hooks
 Half Price
 Through The 7...
 W4...1
 ;
 Bourne To Run4
 DVDs2
 V for Very Di...
 Scrabble: Ash...
 Scrabble, red...1
 A=1, B=2, C=32
 4 Sides To Ev...4
 Periodic Tabl...2
 BIVOUAC4
 String of Mov...3
 Where's Winsl...4
 para-palindro...4
 pun
 Standardized ...2
 Unintended Am...1
 Web Too Dah T...1
 Backronym2
 Fishy
 Too clever by...4
 Another wordy...
 Commercialize...1
 Beyond BOOKKE...7
 Not Positive ...11
 Scrabble Tabl...2
 Puzzle1
 Negativity
 Lightning1
 Another Pan-v...1
 Not So Frugal
 Not So Funny ...1
 Memory of GAM...5
 Musical Wordp...
 830
 Funny1
 Chemical Abbr...1
 Movie Rebuses7
 Television Sh...1
 Even More Het...
 More Heterogr...3
 Oooooo...2
 Those crazy H...2
 NFL4
 Wordmonger2
 Alli says, "A...
 A Puzzling St...3
 THE MAD ANAGR...5
 Synonymous Co...1
 CARNELIOUS3
 -und2
 Batteries2
 Names13
 Rubik Font3
 Under A Spell
 State The Rea...2
 7x7 Scrabble ...
 7x7 Scrabble ...
 Scrabble Squa...4
 Tube Maps2
 GAMES Magazin...
 Superbowl: ST...
 Letter Shifti...1
 Projects of L...
 Slices of PI,...
 Slices of PI,...
 Heterogrammic...
 QWERTY vs. Dv...2
 Word Chemistr...
 Heterogrammic...1
 Pangrammic Cr...1
 Comments for ...1
 Ambigrams
 Alphabet Soup4
 Logo
 Alpha-Pangram...
 Book List
 Scrabble Tile...
 D'oh!
 Letter Shifti...
 Palindromes
 Pangrammic Cr...
 Phobias1
 Pentominoes
 Word Searchin...1
 Welcome1

 
*   *
*   *
 
Comments about this article:
DIVER and DIVEST are not comparative forms of DIVE.

HONER and HONEST are not comparative forms of HON or HONE.

INFER and INFEST are not comparative forms of the string INF.

CONGER and CONGEST are not comparative forms of the string CONG.

Posted by: Tracy Cobbs


 
*   *
*   *
 
Leave a comment on LOGOLOG about the article: Incomparable
Your Name:  

Your comment (HTML tags will be removed):


Day of week today is:   


 
*   *
*   *
 
Copyright © 2005 - 2019, Eric C. Harshbarger
 
*   * *   *