Becky and I were at lunch today, and the topic of conversation turned to what we were going to make for dinner. (Yes, it does indeed take a special person to talk about a FUTURE meal, while consuming a CURRENT one.) We then realized we neglected to get anything out of the freezer, and thusly, all of our choices would be frozen.
This is where the conversation took a philosophical turn.
"I will dethaw the hamburger when we get home." Becky began. "Or is it thaw?"
Wow, I thought dethaw sounded right, but why would you de-thaw something? Wouldn't that mean you were actually freezing it? De meaning un. Or is that even right?
We pondered that for a few moments before coming to the conclusion that "thaw" was a funny sounding word.
Anyhoo, according to Dictionary.com, both thaw and dethaw mean the same thing. I won't bore you with the dictionary definition, but it was basically "changing from solid to liquid."
Just another example of how difficult we make our language. I personally still like the conversations my dad and I had about the word regardless, and his struggle to convince me that irregardless or regardless both could be used.
(NOTE: from dictionary.com
"Irregardless is a word that many mistakenly believe to be correct usage in formal style, when in fact it is used chiefly in nonstandard speech or casual writing. Coined in the United States in the early 20th century, it has met with a blizzard of condemnation for being an improper yoking of irrespective and regardless and for the logical absurdity of combining the negative ir- prefix and -less suffix in a single term.")
So, there.
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