Lessons from the Dictionary: Is It Possible to Be ‘Kempt’?

How did ‘unkempt’ end up as a swan without a mate?

Photo: Sinval Carvalho via Unsplash

A comedian friend of mine has been doing a riff lately about words that seem like they should be an antonym but aren’t. That is, an opposite made by the attachment of a prefix like un- to a root word … except there’s no root. He includes unruly without ruly, inept but not ept, and…