On: On the disappearing antonyms of “grumpy” words

[freefal]

Here's a fun New Yorker article that takes this to an extreme: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1994/07/25/how-i-met-my-w...

A sample: "It had been a rough day, so when I walked into the party I was very chalant, despite my efforts to appear gruntled and consolate. I was furling my wieldy umbrella for the coat check when I saw her standing alone in a corner. She was a descript person, a woman in a state of total array."

[shkkmo → freefal]

"furling" is clearly meant to a part of the joke, but I've spent enough time around sailors that it sounds perfectly natural to me.

[HWR_14 → shkkmo]

"Furling" sounds natural because of sailing. "Wieldy" sounds natural because of RPG's love of the various forms of "wield".

[monkeybutton → freefal]

Somehow without any explicit connection, when I read the definition of "gruntled" the first thing that enters my mind is Tim Allen.