The word “thaw” means: “to pass or change from a frozen to a liquid or semiliquid state; melt.”
So, why is it that people say, “unthaw”. Or, my inspiration for this post, “de-thaw“. Silly people. Next time the word thaw comes to mind and you are about to say it out loud, do not put anything in front of it. Thank you.
3 replies on “Let’s get this straight, people . . .”
unthaw |ˌənˈθô|
verb
1 melt or thaw : [ trans. ] the warm weather helped unthaw the rail lines.
2 [as adj. ] ( unthawed) still frozen; unmelted : it could not explain how future science might revive the unthawed dead.
thaw |θô|
verb [ intrans. ]
(of ice, snow, or another frozen substance, such as food) become liquid or soft as a result of warming : the river thawed and barges of food began to reach the capital | [as n. ] ( thawing) catastrophic summer floods caused by thawing.
• ( it thaws, it is thawing, etc.) the weather becomes warmer and melts snow and ice.
• [ trans. ] make (something) warm enough to become liquid or soft : European exporters simply thawed their beef before unloading.
• (of a part of the body) become warm enough to stop feeling numb : Ryan began to feel his ears and toes thaw out.
• become friendlier or more cordial : she thawed out sufficiently to allow a smile to appear.
• [ trans. ] make friendlier or more cordial : the cast thawed the audience into real pleasure.
noun
a period of warmer weather that thaws ice and snow : the thaw came yesterday afternoon.
• an increase in friendliness or cordiality : a thaw in relations between the U.S.A. and Iran.
ORIGIN Old English thawian (verb); related to Dutch dooien. The noun (first recorded in Middle English ) developed its figurative use in the mid 19th cent.
i broke casey of the “dethaw” curse. whenever he would say it, i would say, “really? you want me to DEthaw it?” (in a nice way, of course) and he hasn’t said it incorrectly in a long time!
Maybe people just think such an important process deserves more than one syllable.