Oh look! A poor little orphan word. Does anyone know where it’s parents are?
[gets old backpack and makes a nest]
We’ll just let it rest here. Perhaps it will get stronger and can be released into the wild.
Blake, the examples you cite are all typos. There is no word, “unflailing”
I could misspell virtually any word, do a Google search for the misspelled word, and cite that as proof that it was “a word”.
At the risk of being rude – panel 4: did you mean “unFAILing” hand, or is it correct as “unFLAILing” hand?
Unflailing.
It’s an interesting word, isn’t it? Not in any dictionary I can find, but do a google search and you’ll see it’s quite oft used.
Not often used in American English. Perhaps in other dialects.
And in this context, “unflinching” would be more expected.
Not often used, yet many examples can be found of its usage. Here are just a few:
http://mustardseednovel.blogspot.com/2009/12/quote-of-day.html
http://www.sortmusic.com/_r/rogue-wave-song,tiSightlines,len.html
http://gwyneda.livejournal.com/273926.html
Which begs the question… where does the word come from?
It’s an odd one for sure.
Well, it’s not in the OED so ?????
Oh look! A poor little orphan word. Does anyone know where it’s parents are?
[gets old backpack and makes a nest]
We’ll just let it rest here. Perhaps it will get stronger and can be released into the wild.
Plus, I can’t stop thinking of the opposite; a flailing hand: getting in a slapfight with destiny.
“Well, it’s not in the OED so ?????”
It should be. I’m going to start a petition.
I believe the root, “flail,” is in the dictionary:
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/flail#Verb
see also the quote (in above link) by HP Lovecraft ;p
Blake, the examples you cite are all typos. There is no word, “unflailing”
I could misspell virtually any word, do a Google search for the misspelled word, and cite that as proof that it was “a word”.