![]() The little pushes and shoves of jostle come from joust-in all of its original horseback collision. CLAMBERĪnd if kids clamber up a wall, they’re climbing up it, hand over foot, with difficulty. Now uncommon, skite means “to run off lightly and quickly.” 9. If a cat skitters up a tree, it’s doing quite a bit of skiting. A baby bird flutters as if to keep itself afloat in the air. We can picture a penguin, after wading out of the sea, taking small and short steps as it waddles onto shore. STRADDLEīack in the 16th century, straddle meant “to spread the legs apart,” especially while one was striding. Slither is a creeping and crawling way to slide. FIZZLEįizzle first meant “to fart silently.” The fizz- comes from fist, an old word for fart, related to feisty. Cringe originally meant to shrink or flinch. CRINKLEĬrinkling involves lots of little cringes. That’s exactly what its root, the Old English twincan, meant. TWINKLEĪ twinkling star looks like it won’t stop winking and blinking. Here’s a list, by no means exhaustive, of 24 of the most unusual and surprising frequentatives hiding right in our everyday speech. Be careful, though, as English has many more words ending with -le and -er that aren’t frequentatives. And once you spot the pattern, you’ll start noticing these curious words all over the place. Chattering, for instance, involves incessant chatting, and sniffling, slight and ongoing sniffing.Įnglish can mark its frequentative verbs with the endings -le and -er. Fancy name aside, these words simply show some sort of small or intense repeated action. English, along with many other languages, has a delightful class of verbs called frequentatives. (16) The hard flutter of their wings in the wind is as unmistakable as racehorse hoof beats.Bobble, sniffle, sparkle. (15) Cat felt a flutter in the pit of her stomach and instinctively pulled her leg away. (14) Words that inspired generations cause a dyspeptic flutter in some intellectual breasts. (13) Lost in her thoughts, she missed the light flutter of eyelids from the body on the bed. (12) I felt my heart flutter in my chest as butterflies stirred in my stomach. ![]() (10) there was a flutter of wings at the window (11) She was careful not to turn her head as she heard the flutter of wings behind her. (9) Champagne was served before noon to kick-start the day, and a bookmaker was even invited to take bets should anyone fancy a flutter. (8) Remember that it's your comfortable retirement you're talking about, not a flutter on the horses. (7) She breathed a sigh of relief, and felt her heart give a warm flutter of excitement. (6) Children, teenagers and adults flutter to the local courts in search of enjoyment and exercise. (5) Some people enjoy a little flutter, and see gambling as a harmless leisure activity. (4) Any fans who fancy a consolation flutter should opt for 2-to Villarreal as history suggests this fate awaits them at El Madrigal on March 7. (3) Feeling a strange flutter in the pit of my stomach, I looked away. (2) Tiny winged creatures flutter about, causing the children to duck and wave their arms. (1) He touched Jeff's name slightly, then let the page flutter to the floor.
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