Very good observation,
CSQ. Studying and using a second language enable an objectivity unavailable to native speakers
who begin to acquire from birth the emotional baggage words carry. Our first encounters with language are shaped by what
was said and done to us by mother, father, sister, brother, etc. Throughout our lives we experience active, if unrecognized,
memories of events through which we learned our mother tongue, making it impossible to detach ourselves from how words
affect us beyond their actual meanings.
Whereas taking on a new language later in life brings out the scientist in us. We approach it as an object to contemplate,
dissect, assemble, memorize and synthesize its various parts and rules of usage in order to understand it well enough to put
it to work. However, the younger we are when exposed to a new language, the more we develop an emotional history with it.
Marguerite, In my 1983 Webster's Collegiate dictionary, there are ten pages of
dis- words.
Here is my humble attempt to play on their various meanings.
..
Poor dis-, overheard dissing the positive:
disavow, disgrace, dishonor
disagree, disconnect, disrupt
disdain, disgust, dislike
discombobulate, dismay and disorient
until there's no sunshine in its dishearten.
Dis-, let our discourse discover:
disarm, distinct, distinguish
discreet, disinfect, dispense
as glasses are filled with spirits
. . . distilled.