High Dudgeon but not Low Dudgeon
Saturday, November 30th, 2013George Kovac asked about the idiomatic used of the Good Word dudgeon, to wit:
“Why is it always high dudgeon? Does no one (but me) ever say just dudgeon or low dudgeon or even medium dudgeon? Some words are always paired in usage, and I guess I should get over it. For example, have you ever heard of something being boggled other than a mind? And if someone is always in a state of high dudgeon, why can’t we describe them as uneven keeled?”
Well, George, the rules of language are strewn with linguistic rubble. Sometimes it results from the lack of a reference (what else besides a mind could be boggled)? Sometimes we simply don’t know. How to you explain the rubble left from grinding out rules that are always changing?
Did you read the wonderful article that appeared in a 1957 edition of The New Yorker called “How I Met my Wife“?