Negafixes English has many different prefixes to negate words, like a- (amoral), an- (anaerobic), contra- (contradiction), de- (destabilize) and im- (immature); or to lessen words, like sub- (subpar), and under- (underestimate).  I call these negafixes.  The problem is you can’t always remove them and get an un-negated word.  But what if you could? abstract — Being a normal person, Hedy Stuff preferred stract art. anemic — Because he constantly licked the iron cell bars, Saul Tenpepper was nemic. angelic — Cruella De Vil gave the Dalmatian pups a gelic smile. antiques — Because of her distaste of history, Erin Sturun liked to collect ques. antiquated — Tired of old furniture, Peg Bord redecorated with quated pieces. contravene — Rick Ashay refused to vene any law dealing with creative accounting. counterfeit — Steve Adoar’s engraving was so good the stuff looked like feit money. delete — Since Dee Sepshun had been such a good girl, she decided to lete another item on her Christmas list. demolish — In his spare time, Rich Enfamus would molish a house of cards. discrete — Normally quite shy, Jude Ishuh was very creet about his sex life. disrupt — With one bang of his gavel, Judge Bean could rupt the courtroom. hapless — Pam Flet assumed men with mustaches were always hap fellows. illusion — Anna Thesia wasn’t imagining things; the bats in the belfry were real lusions. immune — It turned out that Snow White was mune to poisoned apples as well as aspirin. inane — When Bea Fuddle thought about it, the stuck zipper story didn’t sound so ane after all. mischievous — The Bumstead children were quite chievous when paid a great deal of money. miscreant — Being a bit depraved, Sol Itude was not a normal creant. nonchalant — Mort Chuary acted so chalant that the police suspected him immediately. retrospect — In spect, Jonah regarded the whale as no big deal. substitute — Vic Timize longed to be a stitute teacher because he wanted his own desk. subterfuge — Prince Sipple was at his best planning terfuge across the land. understood — Like most people, Jen Uphlect stood her dreams. unruly — As always the ruly congregation mostly slept during the sermon. The negafixes un-, in- and non- are often interchangeable (for example, intolerable = nontolerable = untolerable, and inapplicable = unapplicable = nonapplicable, and unhuman = inhuman = nonhuman).  However, while non- and in- are only stand-ins for the word “not,” un- also can mean the reversal of an action (akin to the de- negafix, as in demystify).  For example, undressed means to the take clothes off and unload means to remove a load.  So, with two negafixes already standing for “not” why not make un- do strictly reversal work—as in: unsold — returned for a refund uncooked — made raw again uncounted — called the time to lift off uneaten — vomited unwashed — made dirty uninformed — fed misinformation unfinished — taken apart unknown — forgotten unwritten — erased unpainted — stripped and scraped unlit — turned the lights out For more un words, see Un-real Meanings. This entertaining page is just one of the many humorous pages showing how English language words can be fun, often being the center of jokes, witticisms, puns, and jest and bringing smiles if not laughter to the comedian in each of us.