On the infinite riches of English

Let us join together in a speechless celebration of English speech. We begin today with an absurd combination of three unoffending letters: D, G and E, as in edge, pledge and sedge.

For purposes of classification, let us designate some words as A words: They have a favorable or pleasant connotation. The B words offer a different penumbra. All the rest are C words, useful serfs but humbly inarticulate. Remarkably, the DGE words are almost unanimously in the B group.

A few A words come to mind. One thinks of "badge." After exceptions are granted for "badge," the A list runs steadily downhill.

Alphabetically we run headlong into the verb "to badger," as in "to harass or persistently to annoy." In the 14th century the phonetic combination spawned the noun "budge," a fur formerly prepared from lambskin. The noun hatched the verb "to budge," which Merriam-Webster poorly defines as "to move, shift, give way, yield." There's also the small parrot beloved as the budgerigar. Since the 1940s, households and governments alike have struggled with budgets.

Moving along, we run into "cadge," dating from 1812, to beg, sponge. There's the much older "dredge," as in "to dredge a harbor." Knives take an edge. When things go wrong, we're edgy. The delectable goo is fudge. In the sense of "to be unwilling to give or admit," the verb "to grudge" dates from the 1300s. The verb spawned the noun "grudge," a feeling of deep-seated resentment. The hedge that is a dense row of shrubbery dates from the 12th century, 300 years ahead of the hedgehog and way ahead of the hedge fund (1967).

Judges came along in the 13th century, transitive nudges about 1675. Someone who is short and plump has been "pudgy" since 1836. This leads us to "sludge" in the 15th century, and to the descriptive "trudge" and the noun/verb "wedge."

We conclude with "smudge." It is a splendid noun, defined as "a blurry spot or streak; an immaterial stain; an indistinct mass; blur." It is also a smoldering mass placed on the windward side (as to protect from frost). What you may not know is that a smudge is "a bid of four in pitch that if made wins the game." In this regard, "pitch" is "an all-fours game in which the first card led is a trump." All clear?

James J. Kilpatrick is a syndicated columnist. Contact him at kilpatjj@aol.com.