He’s a man of integrity! What sort of man is he? He’s an integ ....... Hmmm, wait a minute.

It’s a little odd that there should be no adjective corresponding in sense to the noun. (Integral is no good, of course.) Not so much odd that there isn’t one but that the ones we had all withered on the vine. These were (I may have missed some) integritive, integrious, integrous and integre, all having the sense ‘marked by integrity, upright, honest’, etc and all noted as obs., rare in OED.

Ah well, no accounting for language, synonyms ably took up the slack. (Of the four though I quite like integrious, it has the right ring to it. Maybe I’ll run it up the flagpole down at the pub, see if anybody salutes.)

Any other nouns with no adjectives to support them?

Flagpole? (In OED as flag-pole with a citation for flagpole). Unless you add -like to make it flagpole-like.  Or do you mean nouns that can be used to describe people?

He’s an integ ....... Hmmm, wait a minute.

What’s wrong with “He’s an integrated man”?

Aniruddha - 16 May 2011 01:17 AM

He’s an integ ....... Hmmm, wait a minute.

What’s wrong with “He’s an integrated man”?

That doesn’t carry the required sense.. OED defines as “Combined into a whole; united; undivided. Also of a personality in which the component elements combine harmoniously.”

ElizaD - 15 May 2011 09:57 PM

Flagpole? (In OED as flag-pole with a citation for flagpole). Unless you add -like to make it flagpole-like.  Or do you mean nouns that can be used to describe people?

No, I mean nouns which have perfectly serviceable adjectival forms but those forms do not have the particular meaning of the noun.

That’s a different question from

Any other nouns with no adjectives to support them?

It is indeed, Eliza, and my question was poorly framed.

Worth/worthy (an object of worth ¬ a worthy object)
Temper/temperate (a fit of temper ¬ a temperate fit!)
Stupor/stupid (a state of stupor ¬ a stupid state)
Trick/tricky (a trick question ¬ a tricky question)

He is a man of parts - a partial man. Complete opposites?

venomousbede - 16 May 2011 07:12 AM

He is a man of parts - a partial man. Complete opposites?

That’s a good one.