- Nina Gaspich, Chicago

A: Only when it's used playfully, as this billboard was doing, and as P.G. Wodehouse did back in 1938 when he wrote, "I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled."

Etymologist Michael Quinion credits Wodehouse with starting this play on words and calls "disgruntled" an "unpaired opposite." He looks at a few other examples at his Web site, World Wide Words (worldwidewords.org), including "disconsolate," "ineffable," "innocuous," "unruly" and "unscathed."

The "dis-" in "disgruntled," Quinion explains, is actually an intensifier, making the word more true, rather than untrue. This use of "dis-" used to be more common in English.

"For example, the unusual word 'disannul' was used in the sense 'to make null and void, bring to nothing, abolish' and 'dissever' means 'to divide, separate, disjoin,' " Quinion writes.

In the same way, "disgruntled" means "very gruntled," with "gruntled" originally meaning displeased ù or, literally, in a state of sustained grunting. I don't think that's what the billboard you saw had in mind.

Q: Why do Brits and Canadians go "to hospital" and Americans "to the hospital"?

- Candace Drimmer, Chicago

A: This case is interesting, because Americans do "go to school," "go to church," and "go to jail" (though seldom in one day). On the other hand, we "go to the airport," "go to the mall," and "go to the movies."

Essayist Lionel Deimel examines these examples at his Web site (www.deimel.org) and says he sees a pattern in how "the" is used. He compares the phrase "go to college" ù which refers to the process of getting an education, with "go to the college," which means traveling to a particular school.

"In the absence of the article, 'go to' emphasizes not a physical destination, but participation in some process that takes place at such a destination, which is often an abstract 'place,' " Deimel concludes. "We go to school to learn, to church to worship, to jail to be punished, to court to obtain (or avoid) justice, and to town to experience urban life."

By this logic, Deimel says, "perhaps Americans should speak of 'going to hospital' if, for example, they are checking in to have an operation. If they are just visiting, on the other hand, they are surely 'going to the hospital.' "

I doubt that distinction will catch on, and I wonder about other cases where it doesn't apply. "Going to the mall," for instance, says more about beginning the process of shopping than it does about identifying a specific destination. Same with "going to the country." But Deimel might be on to something in looking at the difference between process and place.

But now it's late, and I'm going to the bed.

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Contact Nathan Bierma at onlanguage@gmail.com

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