A good friend of mine asked me the other day if it was correct to say, “taken back” as an expression of surprise. The answer is “no”; the correct phase is “taken aback.” That may sound funny to some people, but it is correct.

This caused me to think about another word and some prefixes. So I decided to write about “aback,” “unkempt,” and how to use “in” or “im” or “il” or “ir” as a prefix with adjectives. Let’s take them one by one.

Misunderstood Words: “Aback” and “Unkempt”

“Aback,” an adverb, dating from AD 1,100 and coming to us from Middle English, has three historic definitions: Read more…