Have you ever used these terms?

Can you be “ept,” or just “inept”? The riddle of unpaired words

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Do you know what "unpaired words" are? They are terms we assume should exist, based on standard linguistic rules, but don’t. For example, if "nonverbal" is the opposite of "verbal," shouldn’t "nonchalant" be the opposite of "chalant"? As it turns out, it’s not so simple. To test your knowledge and learn more about unpaired words, we’ve crafted a game where you’ll have to guess: Do these words exist, or have we played around by subtracting or replacing their prefixes and suffixes? Game on!

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If ruthless means lacking compassion, shouldn’t an empathetic person be ruthful?

Ruthful does exist. Indeed, ruth is a noun referring to sorrow or compassion, originating from Old English hrēow, meaning "pity." While ruthful was once a common word for "compassionate," it has mostly fallen out of use.

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Innocent means someone is guiltless, or it can refer to their naiveté. But can someone be nocent?

Yes! The term nocent exists. Derived from Latin nocens (meaning "guilty" or "harmful"), nocent was historically used to mean "criminal" or "harmful." Granted, it is rare today. But it does appear in older legal and literary texts.

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Can the same rule of innocent apply to inept? If an inept person lacks skill, does ept mean they "enjoy aptitude"? Inept comes from the Latin ineptus (unsuited, absurd), but Latin had no standalone eptus.

Ept is recognized by some dictionaries, but you could call it a made-up word. It was only in modern texts in English that writers began jokingly playing around with ept and eptitude. So, can you use ept in a Scrabble game? That’s for you and the other players to decide!

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One can be dissatisfied or satisfied, and one can be disgruntled. But can one be gruntled?

Surprisingly, gruntled does exist! It’s an old-fashioned word meaning "pleased, contented." It originates from the verb gruntle, meaning "to grumble". Over time, the prefix dis- took on an intensifying role rather than forming a strict opposite. The word gruntled was revived in the 20th century, mostly for humorous effect.

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Disheveled means messy or disordered. It comes from the Old French deschevelé ("with disordered hair"). Does that mean sheveled describes neatness?

Well, sheveled is an extinct word. It was created by aphesis, which means it was derived from disheveled by losing the first syllable. It did mean "tidy," but was extremely rare, and has long vanished from common use.

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If ageless means that something does not age, does agefull mean that something is enriched with history and experience?

No! Agefull does not exist. While it would seem like a logical word formation, agefull has never been a standard English word. We might describe something rich with history as timeworn or venerable, but agefull never made the cut.

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If exasperate means "to annoy or frustrate", what would the opposite word mean? To calm down? To smooth things over?

Asperate does exist, but it doesn’t mean what you think. It’s an archaic word meaning "to make rough or uneven." Quite the opposite! It comes from the Latin asper, meaning "rough."

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To improvise means "to come up with something unpreparedly," on the spot. Nowadays, you can simply say improv and everyone will understand exactly what you mean. So, does provise mean "to plan ahead," then?

Yes! Provise is a real but rare word. It means "to foresee or provide beforehand." It comes from Latin providere, meaning "to provide."

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Nonchalant means "unconcerned, calm, and casual." As you may have guessed, it derives from Old French, precisely from the verb nonchaloir, which means "to disregard" or "to not be concerned." So, can you be chalant?

No, the term chalant does not exist. The adaptation of chaloir never entered English. We don’t have a perfect antonym for nonchalant; perhaps concerned, caring, or attentive come closest.

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The logical assumption would be that when you are neither overwhelmed nor underwhelmed, you are whelmed. Don’t you think?

But that’s not how it works. Yes, whelmed does exist, but not as a midpoint between the other two. Whelm, from Old English hwielfan, meant "to cover over" or "submerge." Eventually, we added the prefix "over" to it, intensifying the action, but the meaning remained the same.

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If nonplussed means "unruffled," or "unbothered," is plussed another word for "baffled"? Nonplussed comes from Latin nonplus ("no more, nothing further"). Originally, it meant "at a loss," or "bewildered," but its modern usage shifted to a synonym of "untroubled."

Plussed has been jokingly used as an opposite, a backformation of the original, but was never a real word. Some people understand it to mean "shocked" or "ruffled." But we don’t think anyone would make plussed their go-to synonym for "surprised."

Behind-the-scenes secrets

What do Star Wars and the Vatican have in common? Here's the answer

Image: Alvaro Palacios

There's a lot more to movies than what we see on the big screen. As viewers, we get to enjoy the finished product, but the amount of work that goes into making a film is huge. And along the way, plenty of surprising things happen on set—some you’d never imagine! From unscripted slaps to actors stepping in to save their co-stars' lives, here are 10 unusual behind-the-scenes moments from some of our favorite movies.

Image: Carrie Fisher (aka Princess Leia) by Gerald England

Dan Aykroyd is not only a renowned actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer—he’s also a hero! In 1980, during the filming of the now-classic The Blues Brothers, something unexpected happened: Aykroyd literally saved Carrie Fisher's life by performing the Heimlich maneuver when she choked on a Brussels sprout.

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Margot Robbie landed the role of Naomi in The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) on her very first audition. How? During a moment of improvisation, she delivered a hard, genuine slap to co-star Leonardo DiCaprio, totally surprising Martin Scorsese and securing the role. And she was only 22 at the time! Fortunately, Leo took it very well.

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You probably remember the enigmatic green code in The Matrix (1999). While it looks sophisticated and impossible to decipher, production designer Simon Whiteley revealed a surprising truth. In a 2017 interview, he explained that the code was actually inspired by a sushi recipe, created using the characters in a Japanese cookbook his wife had at home.

Image: Chad J. McNeeley, U.S. Navy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

As we know, Schindler’s List is an emotionally difficult film to watch, and filming it was no easier. Director Steven Spielberg later shared that his friend, the great Robin Williams, would call him at least once a week to perform little comedy routines, helping him cope with the difficulty of directing the movie.

Image: Carlo Pelagalli, via Wikimedia Commons

What could the Star Wars universe and the Vatican possibly have in common? Well, in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), one scene was filmed on the grand staircase of Italy's Royal Palace of Caserta. The very same location appears 25 years later in Conclave (2024), the film about the election of popes.

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Some say things aren't as good as they used to be, especially when it comes to special effects. Remember "Edgar," the evil farmer whose skin is taken by an alien in Men in Black (1997)? It turns out the actor's costume and makeup were carefully designed to progressively decompose scene by scene, creating a realistic depiction of the character’s physical deterioration.

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In American Psycho, Willem Dafoe filmed the scene in which Detective Kimball interviews the dangerous Patrick Bateman several times. Why? The director asked him to play it three different ways: one in which Kimball knows Bateman is the killer, another in which he is suspicious but unsure, and a third in which he is completely unaware. The three versions were then edited together, creating the legendary scene that leaves viewers paranoid and disoriented.

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For Interstellar (2014), Christopher Nolan needed a large cornfield for the scenes on Cooper’s farm. But he didn’t use an existing field or create one digitally; he had a massive 500-acre cornfield planted from scratch! The bonus? The studio later harvested and sold the corn, earning around $162,000.

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Since Interstellar premiered in October 2014, only about 1.5 hours have passed on Miller’s Planet.

Okay, this might not be strictly a behind-the-scenes fact, but it’s a fun way the fictional world connects to our own. According to the film, one hour on Miller’s Planet equals seven years on Earth. That means the 11 years that have passed since the premiere amount to just 94 minutes on the distant planet.

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In the 2002 Spider-Man movie, there’s a famous scene where Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker catches Mary Jane’s falling tray of food with the precision and speed of a true superhero. Although it looks like a special effect, no VFX were involved—the actor really did it! The catch, however, required 156 takes to get right.