From: julie@pascal.org   
      
   On Sunday, July 27, 2014 11:33:30 PM UTC-6, Jymesion wrote:   
   > On Sun, 27 Jul 2014 10:20:29 -0400, John W Kennedy   
   >   
   >  wrote:   
   >   
   >   
   >   
   > >On 2014-07-27 10:26:58 +0000, Jymesion said:   
   >   
   > >   
   >   
   > >> To indicate being surprised and bewildered:   
   >   
   > >>   
   >   
   > >> "It gasted my flabber."   
   >   
   > >>   
   >   
   > >> "My gaster was flabbered."   
   >   
   > >>   
   >   
   > >> Which one is correct?   
   >   
   > >   
   >   
   > >Neither one is "correct". "Flabbergast" is an old slang word that was   
   >   
   > >either made up completely or composed from "flabby" + "aghast" or   
   >   
   > >"flap" + "aghast". Its earliest meaning may have been "to gasconade",   
   >   
   > >but if it was, "to wear someone out" caught up with it almost   
   >   
   > >immediately, and "to confound someone with astonishment" soon expelled   
   >   
   > >both.   
   >   
   >   
   >   
   > So (thinking with my typing fingers here) -- if flabber/flabby/flap is   
   >   
   > the noun and gast/aghast is the verb, then the correct form would be:   
   >   
   > "My flabber was gasted."   
   >   
   >   
   >   
   > Right?   
      
   I'm gonna go for "gast my flabber".   
      
   In this case, really, "correct" is probably going to be an issue of sentence   
   rhythm and emphasis.  My preference is to have one half truncated (gast, or   
   even flab) if the other half has a -er or -ed.  Get the *was* out of it.  Ugh.   
      
   "It gasted my flab"... but only if the connotation of flab=fat is funny in the   
   context.   
      
   -Julie   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)