Re: Two different opposites

On Tue, 13 Jan 2004, Ray Brown wrote:

> On Tuesday, January 13, 2004, at 01:37 AM, Tristan McLeay wrote:
>
> > On Mon, 12 Jan 2004, Joe wrote:
> [snip]
>
> > For instance, we have 'welcome' 'unwelcome', and 'neither welcome nor
> >> unwelcome'.  I suggest a new prefix 'en-'. For instance 'enfast' means
> >> 'not fast', but 'unfast' means 'slow'.
> >
> > Well, en- already has a meaning so I'm not sure that that's such a good
> > idea,
>
> You're being polite.  en- is a very bad idea if you want to create a new
> English prefix with the idea of "not".
:)

> > (Personally, enfast to
> > me sound like you're making something fast, though, perhaps, that implies
> > that it's not yet fast.)
>
> Is that 'fast' in the sense of "firm, fixed" or of "quick, rapid"? (I
> assume not the sense "refrain from food")
Well, the default meaning for 'fast' for me (as an adj) is 'quick, rapid',
so unless context suggested otherwise, I'd probably assume that. I
wouldn't coin it thus, though; if I had need to, I would undoubtedly chose
'enfasten', though whether I'd desire to pronounce the -t- or not, I'm not
sure (being a coinage, but on the other hand having many similar Ften
words with a silent t (F=unvoiced fricative).

--
Tristan

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