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.
It seems nowadays, one cannot be kempt, only well kempt.
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:
I think that’s a good quote for YOU, twix 
kempt = kept and ept = apt, which are perfectly good words.
Well, if you’re going to go all OED on me…
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:
Wuthering.
I recently talked to a blithering idiot.
But…although he babbled, mumbled, and grumbled, he never blithered.
This morning’s horoscope:
You’re being stalked by “daunt”. I’d hide out for a while.
I refuse to let daunt daunt me!
That’s the dauntless spirit!
I’ve heard quite a few people blither.
I daresay, I’ve been draggled as well.
Excruciating. “I was in excruciating pain” is fine, and yet I would never say, “I felt like I was being excruciated.”
This whole thing with taking familiar words and using them in legit, yet unfamiliar ways reminds me of Stephen Donaldson. 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.
Mr Tulip in The Truth seems to use this form exclusively.
Don’t kill me.