Loosening up and unraveling a mystery

Add comment July 24th, 2008

The prefix “un-” usually transforms the main word into its opposite. This generally holds true, from “unabashed” to “unzip.”

As pointed out in Mark Davidson’s “Right, Wrong, and Risky,” there are at least two common words that mean the same as their “un-” versions.

Once upon a time, “ravel” (rhymes with “travel”) meant “to make complicated or tangled,” but these days that’s considered rare. Now it’s the same as “unravel”: “untwist,” “untangle” or “make clear.”

Either one is acceptable, but “unravel” works better for me, because it’s all about undoing something.

However, in the case of “loosen” and “unloosen,” I choose “loosen.” Why? Because logically, “unloosen” seems to be saying “tighten up.”