28 Jan 2011 13:08
Today’s word of the day is emmadden.
em·mad·den /ɛm.’ma.dən/
verb
To constructively make mad or crazy, or to feign to make mad or crazy, always without malice or injury, and usually with the complete opposites.
Origin
2011: intentional coinage by Steve Kass (http://www.stevekass.com), variant of madden with intentionally vague technoetymology. Perhaps a portmanteau of madden and imagine, perhaps an intensive of madden, or perhaps a variation of madden that communicates a quality of uncertainty or inconfidence, as if compounded with the interjection um.
May 7th, 2011 at 12:35 pm
“Emmadden” seems to be parallel to the circumfix that a few English words required to form causatives from an adjectival base form:
enlighten = to bring to light / make light
(lighten = make lighter)
embolden = to make bold
*bolden / *embold
The circumfix is fundamentally en-ADJ-en with the first “n” assimilating the labial quality of the following phoneme: n > m.