Since last week we talked about frequentatives being a word from a verb that happens repeatedly, I thought I’d talk about them more.
Repeatedly, actually.
For instance, the verb to crack, if it gets repetitive, turns to the frequentative crackle.
I found three frequentatives that are from movement sort of verbs that we’re all familiar with, but that I never connected the frequentative with the verb itself.
The first is jig and jiggle.
For some reason, this makes me laugh. Dancing a jig is funny. But if you do it repeatedly, you jiggle. At least I would certainly jiggle.
The second is wrest and wrestle.
I’m having a hard time expressing why this one is funny to me, but I think it has to do with the strength of the two words. Wrest is such a strong, forceful word, and wrestle is more of a gridlocked thing. Somehow it makes the word wrestle more interesting realizing that it’s repeated wresting.
The last is joust and jostle. This is definitely a case of the two words having different strength.
Being jostled is mildly irritating. But being jousted! Ouch!
So next time you’re jostled in a crowd, just be glad it’s not a knight repeatedly jousting you, as the term would indicate.
Happy Reading!
Janice
