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Positively Seeking Unmatched Negatives!

"Language is dynamic." That is a positive thing to say, isn't it? "Neologism" is the linguistic term for new words created in a language. English seems to get a bunch of new words every year.

However, some words in our English language seem to just be negative.

I don't mean what you think, though. Sure there are people who gripe about their health, lack of money, etc., but that isn't the topic here.

I am talking about words that seem to only have a negative form. The positive version isn't there, or has gone into disuse. 

There are many prefixes that turn positive words into negative ones. But if you remove the negating prefix from some words, you get a word that seemingly isn't there.

I have begun a list here, and I will want to expand it. If you can help build the list, send a note to me [below].

Here we go.

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July 2008:
[[Follow the development of this list on Internet Book Datbase of Fiction Forum Topic.]]

Word	Unused Positive Form?	Notes
Disgruntled	Gruntled?	I am not happy that there is no positive sense available here. (*) Also mentioned in Michael Quinion's World Wide Words site.
Disgust (Disgusted)	Gusted?	My distaste is soothed by milk and cookies.
Dismay (Dismayed)	Mayed?	I suppose I should be alarmed, but not surprised at this one.
Disparage	Parage?	Should we only express a negative opinion of someone or something?
Incongruous	Congruous?	Is "congruous" incompatible with its negative form? Congruous is a good word, but it doesn't quite match the negative--"corresponding in character or kind"
Indiscriminate	Discriminate (Discriminating?)	The positive here is actually used, but has a very negative meaning itself. Hence "we should not discriminate against" a group of people. That may be why it isn't used as a positive for indiscriminate.
Inviolate	Violate (Violated?)	Maybe this should be left for you to look up in a dictionary.
Nondescript	Descript? (Distinct?)	I have the feeling that I need more details about this one.
Unmentionables	Mentionables	This one strikes me funny. Of course, there cannot be a positive here. Underwear is not to be mentioned in polite company (guess that leaves me out of polite company)

There are also some "marginal" words.

Disable

Enable

I say marginal because the base "able" isn't the positive. En- as a prefix is positive. Engender, enforce, etc. share the positive prefix...though I don't think you would say "disforce" or "disgender" for negatives.

There are also "failed" negatives. They have the negative form, but are used to express a positive condition.

Invaluable

Valuable

If anything, "invaluable" is even more positive than saying simply "valuable."

Although consideration of orphan (unpaired) negative words isn't a major linguistic concern, there appear to be others who find this topic interesting:

Not alone in interest for this topic:

Michael Quinion writes about negatives in his on line column World Wide Words.

Book Reference

Consider this nonsense sentence from EditPros: "Ept, plussed managers operate sipid programs because they ter their ruly employees, who exhibit an admirable regard for feasance."

Read the reply from CalifJim to a question about prefix use which is more generic, but raises a few interesting points.

There is an interesting double negative "undisclosed" prefix in this entry of Pain in the English blog.

Also try doing Web searches for the following phrases:

unpaired words
negative prefix