just playing around

I love words. You already know that. I’m not a professional grammarian, maybe just a wordaholic. When I discover a pattern I never thought about, don’t think I ever learned or was taught, I notice it and fool around a little.

Take flaccid. I stopped to look at it for a moment because I wondered why people say it with a soft s when they never call an accident an assident. Then I noticed the id ending and began noticing other adjectives with similar endings.

flaccid rapid humid morbid florid limpid torpid turgid vapid frigid rigid fetid pallid

Just playing around:.

What about en?

I think it’s old. Remember “old oaken bucket”? And “leathern” as in shoes? leathern adjective archaic: made of leather. leathern braces. Yes, the online dictionary says it’s archaic. Let’s see: there’s golden as in golden pond. Totally acceptable, but look at silvern: silvern adjective archaic: made of or coloured silver. ORIGIN Old English seolfren, silfren. Well…

silken shrunken hagridden —they’re out of fairy tales, in my world.

And al:

autumnal feral accidental

Not assidental.

Anon.