Why is "happy" the only emotion that can be "un"?

[Annie-Xmas]

There is no such thing as being “unsad” or “unangry.” So how come “unhappy” is a word?

[am77494]

What about Unexcited or unfazed ?

[MrDibble]

… unafraid, unashamed…

[Mijin]

Well this is uncomfortable…

[Lucas_Jackson]

Uncaring, unfeeling.

[Gedd]

They may have been unprepared

[Colophon]

On the other hand, have you ever heard of anybody being derwhelmed?

[Exapno_Mapcase]

From etymonline.com

happy (adj.)

late 14c., “lucky, favored by fortune, being in advantageous circumstances, prosperous;” of events, “turning out well,” from hap (n.) “chance, fortune” + -y (2). … From Greek to Irish, a great majority of the European words for “happy” at first meant “lucky.” An exception is Welsh, where the word used first meant “wise.”

unhappy (adj.)

c. 1300, “causing misfortune or trouble (to oneself or others),” from un- (1) “not” + happy. Meaning “unfortunate, unlucky” is recorded from late 14c.; sense of “miserable, wretched” is recorded from late 14c. (originally via misfortune or mishap).

[Ashtura]

How come you never hear about gruntled employees? Only the disgruntled ones?

[DavidwithanR]

I think the concept of polar opposites might be what you’re thinking of. We can (if we want to be a bit silly about it) give a happiness rating from minus 100 up to plus 100. But I don’t automatically think of anger as even having a polar opposite. (Does it have one after all, and I’m just missing it?) Anyway, I can only rate anger from zero to plus 100 - the negative values don’t make sense to me.

Now… ARE there really polar opposite emotions that we name “happy” and “unhappy”? Or is that just a convenient way of talking, but with no factual basis in the study of emotion? I don’t know.

[x-ray_vision]

The question is under what conditions does negation allow such contrary
readings? The facts are complicated, but part of the answer seems to be that they
occur with evaluatively positive (e-positive) predicates the denial of which may
indirectly express an evaluatively negative (e-negative) judgement. Thus, for
example, we find contrary readings available with (weakly) e-positive predicates, as
in (8), but not with e-negative or strongly e-positive predicates, as in (9).

(8) a. He’s not nice. (= ‘he’s mean’)
b. She’s not happy. (= ‘she’s sad’)

(9) a. He’s not mean. (≠ ‘he’s nice’)
b. She’s not sad. (≠ ‘she’s happy’)
c. She’s not ecstatic. (≠ ‘she’s miserable’)

Similarly, with affixal negation, the English un- prefix in (10) yields contrary
meanings in combination with e-positive roots, but tends not to combine at all with
the contrary e-negative roots (Zimmer 1964).

(10) happy unhappy sad *unsad
kind unkind cruel *uncruel
wise unwise foolish *unfoolish

A form like unhappy provides an oblique way of delivering the loaded content of
sad; but unsad can serve no similar purpose, as one is normally happy to express the content of happy.

The pragmatics of contrary negation is clearest perhaps in the phenomenon of
neg(ative)-raising, as in (11), where a matrix negation is interpreted as applying to an embedded constituent.

(11) a. I don’t think you should do that. (= ‘I think you should not …’)
b. I don’t suppose you’d like to dance. (= ‘I suppose you wouldn’t…’)

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/590a/c3fc3befa20d527a60e5be1c40243bf0f576.pdf

[The_Other_Waldo_Pepper]

@Annie-Xmas

There is no such thing as being “unsad” or “unangry.” So how come “unhappy” is a word?

I hope my answer doesn’t leave you unsatisfied.

[Jasmine]

There’s the dead and the undead.

[The_Other_Waldo_Pepper]

There’s the enthusiastic and the unenthusiastic.

[kayaker]

I, for one, am unabashed.

[Procrustus]

@kayaker

I, for one, am unabashed.

I’m undeserving

[Enola_Gay]

I’m combobulated

[The_Other_Waldo_Pepper]

@Enola_Gay

I’m combobulated

But are you hinged?

[Kent_Clark]

Is this an unserious question?

[The_Other_Waldo_Pepper]

I’m unsure.