I Like Words

Those who know me fairly well know that I like words.  I like to mess with them.  I especially like to take nouns and turn them into verbs and turn verbs into nouns.  I also enjoy conjugating them, which produces some rather interesting new words.  When doing so I try to follow established patterns.  Let me share the process with you.

Begin with the word sing.  In addition to the I sing, you sing, and he, she, or it sings pattern, there are the tenses that come into play.  Therefore, you have the words sing, sang, sung.  Please consider the possibilities for the word hang.  You end up with hing, hang, hung.  Now work backwards with me to I hing, you hing, and he, she or it hings.  It has to work.  Am I missing something here?

Or, take if you would the word sink.  Sink, sank, sunk.  All three are completely legitimate words and when you apply the logic of the progression of those words, you end up with think, thank (not to be confused with the word of the same spelling meaning an expression of appreciation), and thunk. 

Return with me now to the word sing. Today I had the opportunity to fling something away (no, not that).  We have the obvious, I fling, you fling, he, she, or it flings (we fling, you fling, they fling), but what happens when you put that word into a past tense.  The progression goes something like this: fling, flang, flung. 

As a person who had flung something I became a flunger after the fact, but while I was flinging it, I was a flinger (much like a singer).  That of course is in a past perfect tense, but had it been a simple past tense statement I would have been a flanger.  Keep in mind that a singer, once finished singing a song then becomes a sanger or a sunger (past perfect—as in, “he had been a sunger”).

Now, that which I flang or had flung, became flaneged or flunged.  It wasn’t flangt or flungt.  But the object itself should be defined as a flong.  Keep this rule in mind: Fling is to flong as sing is to song.  So, today as I did my morning walk I flang a flong.  Of course, at the time I was flinging a flong.  By the way, Susan walked with me today as she always does, but she seldom if ever flings flongs.  She just is not a flinger.  I don't think she was ever a flanger.  I once thank that she was, but she never has been a flunger.

One person who flings is a flinger, but two or more people are flingers.  And just as a flinger who had flung in the past is a flanger, multiple flingers who have flung in the past are flangers.  One must be careful here to distinguish between possessive and past perfect. A person can have flingers and flangers, but you always have flungered.  And, when asking person about flingering, or more aptly put, flangering in the past, you ask if that person flangered.  For example, “Was that you that flangered last night?” Of course, past perfect would be, “Have you flungered before?”

Now for some final thoughts as I bring this full circle.  Had I accidentally flung the fling onto a person when I flang it (to be clear, there was no recipient of the flang), then that person would have been the flungee.  Of course, at the time it happened that person would be the flingee, but since we are talking about an imperfect past that person was a flangee.

I hope this clears everything up.