# Constructing valid words ending in -gry.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constructing-valid-words-ending-in-gry/431346>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 27, 2007, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constructing-valid-words-ending-in-gry/431346 "2007-12-27T01:42:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2007, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constructing-valid-words-ending-in-gry/431346/21 "2007-12-27T20:23:07Z")

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[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas]  
I thinking of a variation on the once perfectly acceptable word [niggard](http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/niggard.html): niggry.  
[/QUOTE]

Quite possibly ill-advised.

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**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constructing-valid-words-ending-in-gry/431346/22 "2007-12-28T02:01:57Z")

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[QUOTE=Chief Pedant]  
Why would you consider there to be a constraint around any neologism?

There is not some codified set of “rules of grammar” that “invented” angry and hungry, nor is there any set of (consistent) rules to which new words must conform before they are released to the polloi.  
[/QUOTE]  
Sure, except that if I make up a word, it isn’t a “real” word unless one of two things happen: either millions of people adopt it and it’s usage becomes commonly accepted by all but the purists; or else when someone says “that’s not a word” I can play rules lawyer, and point out that it meets all the criteria for how English words have historically been constructed from root words. It you ain’t popular, you gotta be correct.

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**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constructing-valid-words-ending-in-gry/431346/23 "2007-12-29T20:13:28Z")

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[QUOTE=Siam Sam]  
I’m sure I’ve read there’s a third word that ends with -gry, but I can’t for the life of me think what it is. 😕  
[/QUOTE]

**gryphon**.

You didn’t say \*which \*end \*\*gry \*\*was on.

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**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constructing-valid-words-ending-in-gry/431346/24 "2007-12-29T20:43:44Z")

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It’s “two common words that end in -gry,” FWIW. The term “maugry” exists in English (i.e. southern Great British) slang, though I’m not clear on the exact meaning – my impression is skimpy and below standard, as in a too-small portion of a too-weak stew. No doubt there are other oddball forms.

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**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/constructing-valid-words-ending-in-gry/431346/25 "2007-12-29T21:53:35Z")

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If you are more than just hungry, you say, “I’m hongry!”

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