Gorm and ruth

Mel · Post by **Mel** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 12:44 pm

I have been thinking about words like "ruthless" and "gormless". We use these words but never "ruth" or "gorm". I wonder how these came to drop out of the language?
Also can you find other examples?
This might make a change from some "easy look up" topics which are posted to this site.

russcable · Post by **russcable** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 3:14 pm

And an "easy look up" from this site:
http://www.wordwizard.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?t=1159

podictionary · Post by **podictionary** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 2:37 am

But we do use "rue" which is the opposite of "ruthless." The OED gives "goam" as the opposite of "gormless" and alas, agrees with you that "goam" is indeed obsolete, last cited 1877.
http://www.podictionary.com the audio word a day