…In a State of Disarray
I wonder about things. Like gravity, and who eats liver and why, and what that clunking sound my car makes means. But I really ponder the words and expressions we all use. I think about them when I write or say them; I think about them even when I’m thinking them. Don’t you?
I was wondering about the word disarray this morning when I got up and walked into the kitchen to find that the ‘dirty dishes fairy’ hadn’t visited last night.
We say that things are “in a state of disarray.” That means that they are messy or out of order. So, if things are tidy or well-organized, why don’t we say that they’re “in a state of array”? What does array mean? I looked it up in Webster’s 8th New Collegiate Dictionary. It said that array is a verb that means, “to set or place in order.” That makes sense. Disarray/array. It can also be a noun, as “an array of items.” Have you ever heard someone use the word array? Probably not, but it is a word. I wonder whether I should use it.
Or what about “disgruntled”? Webster’s says it means, “to make ill-humored or discontented.” So, if you’re happy, are you gruntled? Has anyone ever said they were gruntled? I don’t think so. Although I just looked up gruntled and it’s in there. It means “to put in a good humor; were gruntled with a good meal and good conversation.” Hmm. Have you ever been happy and said to your husband, “Oh, I’m so gruntled tonight”? No.
Maybe I need to look up the prefix “dis.” Let’s see…
I’m not surprised to see that “dis” means not or to do the opposite of. I understand that disestablish is the opposite of establish. That works for me. And of course, disagreeable means not agreeable.
But when we get to Webster’s final definition, things get a little hazy. Now suddenly sneaky Mr. Webster comes along saying that it means “completely more, totally.”
And the examples they give! Disannul/annul? If you have a marriage you regret annulled, do you say you had it disannulled if you really, really regret it? No one would understand you. They’d think you were from Wisconsin, or worse, North Dakota. There you’d be trying to be “vocabulary woman” and you’d have to spend twenty minutes explaining that no, you hadn’t had your marriage unanulled; you’d had it completely and totally annulled. Is there any other level of annul? Semi-annulled? That’s like being just a little pregnant.
The other word they use as an example is cancel. If you cancel something, you don’t do it; you cross it off your calendar. So, if you discancel something, do you gather all the people who were involved and treat them to a little electroshock so that whatever you canceled is completely wiped from their minds?
Is there a group of people somewhere making these dictionaries and laughing their behinds off? Are we the victims of some sort of plot by word nerds to make us sound stupid?
“Look, Leo, I put in gruntled!”
“Great, Penelope! Let’s completely change the meaning of ‘dis’ in the final definition! That’ll really screw ‘em up!”
Does anybody else think about this stuff? Are they out among the public or are they secure in nice, padded cells somewhere, like me?
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I’m wondering about disgust. What is gust anyway?