[language] frequentative verbs!

[kaberett]

A door blows open in your mind when you learn about the suffix -le, it explains so much. People used to add it to verbs to mean 'more than once' or continuously--so originally, to ramble is 'to roam' on, to jostle is to joust repeatedly, and to sparkle is to emit lots of sparks.

-- Wylfcen on ex-Twitter, 10/04/2024

... plus a(n unsourced -- possibly subsequently-modified wiktionary?) screenshot of a definition ("A frequentative suffix of verbs, indicating repetition or continuousness") with examples (crack/crackle, daze/dazzle, draw/drawl, game/gamble, grope/grapple, hand/handle, nest/nestle, nose/nuzzle, prate/prattle, scribe/scribble, sniff/sniffle, wrest/wrestle).

Which I had no idea about and which delighted me. The Wikipedia page on frequentatives and the Wiktionary page give partially but not wholly overlapping lists of examples, with variably robust etymologies. I have been enjoying muttering -le words to myself and giggling for the past several days since this originally crossed my radar, and today I finally managed to find it again for sharing. Enjoy.

Comments

Word and Wordle!

[jesse_the_k]

Butting in with my favorite authoritative free dictionary, the Collins Cobuild, aimed at English language learners. They agree with your research examples

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/frequentative

I use Cobuild in my EFL tutoring, which I’ve been planning to write about since >squints< a long time.

The habitual aspect in ASL is expressed through various circling motions paired with mouth shapes, demonstrated on YouTube: https://youtu.be/O_YH3O2Z1Yw

[ninetydegrees]

Oh interesting! Thanks for sharing!

[ursula]

This is great fun!

[conuly]

Oh god I love frequentatives and will sometimes just blurt out paired words to my family.

You sometimes hear them as /r/ instead of /l/ - see chat and chatter, for example, or pock/poke and pucker.

[azurelunatic]

Ooo!

[sfred]

Fantastic!

[fanf]

Ooh shiny new facts! Thanks 🤩

[flippac]

Life sure decides to fuckle with some of us!

[horselizard]

good yes :D

[silveradept]

I am one of the lucky 10,000 on this, so thank you or that. I'll have to try and pay attention more to my -le verbs and see how much I engage with the frequentive.