Lexigame Community
General Category => Words => Topic started by: birdy on April 27, 2021, 10:13:13 AM
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Not allowed in the spelunker game.
I know the more common word is peel, and unpeel seems impossible - how do you stick the peeled skin back on a potato, for instance?
But it does seem to be a word and is in dictionaries, and means peel.
Like rave/unravel - both mean the same thing. No one can convince me that the English language is logical.
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I agree, I tend to think of unpeel as being a word.
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I tried it as well - to remove the peel...
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The convergence in meaning of peel and unpeel is highlighted when we consider unpeeled. As an adjective it means not peeled:
Take a ripe, unpeeled banana and split lengthways three-quarters the way down with a knife.
But as a verb it means peeled:
Alves coolly unpeeled the banana and ate it before tossing away the peel and taking a corner kick.
Unpeeled is already accepted in Chi. In fact it's classed as common. Presumably this is as an adjective, because neither unpeel nor unpeeling are accepted.
Unpeel is in some dictionaries, including the online Oxford and Merriam-Webster. It is not used anywhere near as frequently as unpeeled. It's sometimes used in relation to fruit or vegetables, but it seems to be mostly used in a more figurative way:
Wander along its streets and plazas and you will be able to unpeel layers of history, through its Arab and Romanesque buildings but also through the newer attractions of street art.
President Joe Biden also faces concentric crises, which move outward toward the future as you unpeel them: the biological threat of the pandemic, the economic recession, and, beyond that, the entrenched problem of child poverty.
It can also be used of clothing, as in the anonymous Australian poem "The Spider from the Gwydir", dating from around 1915. (The Gwydir is a river.)
Then the sheila raced off squealin’,
And her clothes she was un-peelin’:
To hear her yells would make you feel forlorn.
One hand the bite was pressin’,
While the other was un-dressin’,
And she reached the camp the same as she was born!
In future unpeel and unpeeling will be allowed, as rare words.
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No one can convince me that the English language is logical.
Gnaw wood eye try!
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English language logical? Try this one for size.
Cleave
1. to split or sever. (Think what a cleaver does to a piece of meat).
2. to stick fast to; to adhere to. 'A man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and the two shall become one flesh' (Biblical)
Same word, opposite meanings.
'Go figure' as they say.
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English language logical? Try this one for size.
Cleave
1. to split or sever. (Think what a cleaver does to a piece of meat).
2. to stick fast to; to adhere to. 'A man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and the two shall become one flesh' (Biblical)
Same word, opposite meanings.
'Go figure' as they say.
That has long been my favourite autoantonym. I worked with a guy who refused to believe cleave had the second meaning until I convinced him to look up the meaning. It is the first example in the Wikipedia article on autoantonyms (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-antonym).
I would not be surprised if English was the least logical of languages! I once read the two most difficult languages to learn were English and Mandarin — the two languages with the most speakers. Go figure that one!
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Thanks for the link to the Wikipedia article, TRex.
Fascinating reading.