# "ing" went the strings of my heart **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 16, 2009, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ing-went-the-strings-of-my-heart/489624 "2009-03-16T15:30:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ing-went-the-strings-of-my-heart/489624/21 "2009-03-16T17:41:46Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Since zombie status begins at six months in this forum, and since [Things it’s better to do right the first time](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=328561) had its 24 Replies and 406 Views starting 08-03-2005, 01:45 PM, I’ll just mention it. If this is not the thread to continue it, maybe somebody else will see fit to start another. It’s not really the dynamic I’m thinking of, so feel free to start your own thread. I’m talking about things that are indentifiable verbs that aren’t used verbiciously, not word fragments that don’t actually exist separately. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ing-went-the-strings-of-my-heart/489624/22 "2009-03-16T18:00:47Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Also, gruntled, kempt and ept. It seems nowadays, one cannot be kempt, only well kempt. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ing-went-the-strings-of-my-heart/489624/23 "2009-03-16T18:57:50Z")
Oddly enough, I am quite familiar with the use of “daunted”…because one of my favorite bands quotes the following passage in one of their songs. It’s from Washington Irving’s _Rip Van Winkle_: > [@Washington Irving](#): > > How solemnly they would listen to the contents, as drawled out by Derrick Van Bummel, the schoolmaster, a dapper learned little man, who was not to be **daunted** by the most gigantic word in the dictionary; and how sagely they would deliberate upon public events some months after they had taken place. I think that’s a good quote for YOU, **twix** 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![JR\_Brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JR\_Brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JR_Brown)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ing-went-the-strings-of-my-heart/489624/24 "2009-03-16T19:12:13Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Draggled. One can be _be_draggled, but never draggled. Also, gruntled, kempt and ept. kempt = kept and ept = apt, which are perfectly good words. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ing-went-the-strings-of-my-heart/489624/25 "2009-03-16T19:15:28Z")
> [@JR\_Brown](#): > > kempt = kept and ept = apt, which are perfectly good words. Well, if you’re going to go all OED on me… ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ing-went-the-strings-of-my-heart/489624/26 "2009-03-16T19:16:01Z")
Who you calling dapper? :mad: Funnily enough, I just picked up the March issue of _Vogue_ (my favorite bathroom reading) and opened it to a profile of Melinda Gates: > [@](#): > > “I do think about what I want people to say that the foundation accomplished in my lifetime,” Gates says. “Are we working on the things that people will look back and say, ‘Wow, they really did tackle the biggest concerns for the world?’ But I don’t think about it on a daily or even yearly basis. It would just be too heavy,” she says. “Of course we talk about eliminating AIDS and malaria. We know how hard that is going to be, but we are not daunted.” ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ing-went-the-strings-of-my-heart/489624/27 "2009-03-16T19:43:04Z")
Wuthering. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ing-went-the-strings-of-my-heart/489624/28 "2009-03-16T20:17:36Z")
I recently talked to a _blithering_ idiot. But…although he babbled, mumbled, and grumbled, he never _blithered_. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ing-went-the-strings-of-my-heart/489624/29 "2009-03-17T13:08:26Z")
This morning’s horoscope: > [@](#): > > Your big project seems _daunting_, but you know you can finish it off if you can just push through the next big rough patch. See if you can get your people to make the leap of faith with you. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ing-went-the-strings-of-my-heart/489624/30 "2009-03-17T13:09:28Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > This morning’s horoscope: You’re being stalked by “daunt”. I’d hide out for a while. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ing-went-the-strings-of-my-heart/489624/31 "2009-03-17T14:16:38Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > You’re being stalked by “daunt”. I’d hide out for a while. I refuse to let daunt daunt me! ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ing-went-the-strings-of-my-heart/489624/32 "2009-03-17T14:39:41Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > I refuse to let daunt daunt me! That’s the dauntless spirit! ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ing-went-the-strings-of-my-heart/489624/33 "2009-03-17T14:41:41Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > I recently talked to a _blithering_ idiot. > > But…although he babbled, mumbled, and grumbled, he never _blithered_. I’ve heard quite a few people blither. ---
**Author:** ![KnitWit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f0a364/32.png) [@KnitWit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KnitWit)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ing-went-the-strings-of-my-heart/489624/34 "2009-03-17T14:42:14Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > I’ve heard quite a few people blither. I daresay, I’ve been draggled as well. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2009, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ing-went-the-strings-of-my-heart/489624/35 "2009-03-18T01:59:37Z")
Excruciating. “I was in excruciating pain” is fine, and yet I would never say, “I felt like I was being excruciated.” ---
**Author:** ![Ichini\_Sanshigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d9b06d/32.png) [@Ichini\_Sanshigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichini_Sanshigo)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2009, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ing-went-the-strings-of-my-heart/489624/36 "2009-03-18T02:44:13Z")
This whole thing with taking familiar words and using them in legit, yet unfamiliar ways reminds me of [Stephen Donaldson](http://www.gdiproductions.net/srdamd/). I’m pretty sure I’ve seen “whelm” used as a verb in his books… And in fact, it’s on the linked page! Ah, this thread brings back fond memories of the first time I read the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. It was high school, and I was procrastinating on building my stick bridge for physics class. Also, it was, coincidentally, not long before SAT testing time. I think the series may have helped. ---
**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ing-went-the-strings-of-my-heart/489624/37 "2009-03-19T19:35:34Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > For reasons that I cannot now reconstruct, I was thinking about the phrase “a daunting task.” “Daunt” is a verb that really only appears in adjectival form (so it’s not a gerund, which is an “-ing” version of a verb that functions as a noun). You don’t say “Whoa baby, that task really daunts me!” (I guess you might say “I was really daunted by that task” – seems unlikely, though.) > > What are some other verbs that you only see used in the “ing” form? Mr Tulip in [The Truth](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_Pin_and_Mr_Tulip#Mr_Tulip) seems to use this form exclusively. Don’t kill me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ing-went-the-strings-of-my-heart/489624.md?page=1)