Discombobulate; adjective: to disconcert, confuse, unsettle. A disconcerting state of confusion.
By the rules of English prefixes, it stands to reason that there is a both a ‘combobulate’ and a ‘bobulate’, but what do they mean?
Dis – as a prefix – negates. So ‘combobulate’ must be the opposite of
discombobulate.
Discombobulate comprises two basic elements: ‘untogetherness’ & ‘confusion’, so a direct opposite of that – combobulate – must be ‘clear togetherness’
That the prefix ‘com’ means ‘together’ or ’with’ only reinforces this argument.
But what then does ‘bobulate’ mean? It cannot simply have the same meaning as discombobulate as that would be superfluous, but it must also be an opposite.
The double prefix in discombobulate is unusual but it does lead to a particular conclusion with regards to the meaning of bobulate.
Dis is a negative.
Com means together.
If you strip the negativity and the togetherness out of discombobulate you are left with a positive untogetherness, or a concerting confusion.
So, I propose that ‘bobulation’ is harmony in disarrangement.
To paraphrase vocabulary.com: ‘If you don’t know up from down, you can’t spell your own name and this is a disconcerting experience, you may be
discombobulated’.
Therefore recovering from such a state would be combobulating, and enjoying it would be bobulating.
