combobulated = ?

I can tell you the whole article is full of nonsense words: horseful, strapful, combobulated, ruly or peccable. The author is questioning why they aren't real words in English when discombobulated, unruly, and impeccable are words. Dis... and un... and im... are prefixes that usually change the meaning of the words in which they are attached.

These three words are some of the exceptions where when you take away the prefix, what remains is not a real word.



Is making an issue with the overused English proverbs ...
"She isn't a spring chicken" (meaning she is no longer a young child or young adult). Or "He wouldn't hurt a fly" (meaning that person is such a pacifist or a weakling that he couldn't be capable in hurting a fly, let alone try to hit or hurt someone else).

Oh, OK, thanks for clearing that up

The tzar is quite right, of course. The quoted passage is part of a much longer humorous take on absurdities in the English language. It poses such questions as "Why do we drive on a parkway but park in the driveway?"

It sounds like that idiot, Richard Lederer.

You are very ept.

I believe it has very little to do with English as a language but more with people's behavior.

Look:

Parkway - An expressway located on a strip of land legally constituting a public park and therefore not open to heavy vehicles...

You can then perfectly drive in a parkway (a way in a park). The problem is assuming that park is a verb and not a noun.

You drive in your driveway when accessing your garage. Parking there, and not in the garage, it's a behaviorial problem that has little to do with English language..

You're right, Francis.

There's no problem with 'park' being a verb. It is. Both a verb and a noun. That's part of what makes English English, the easy conversion of nouns to verbs.

You mean I failed my early pregnancy test?!
I CAN'T AFFORD THIS BABY! Where is the nearest dumptser ... <<sob>>