Often when I’m playing Scrabble, I’m testing every normally -ed word with the -t variant to see if I can make it fit, but only a small percentage of them gets accepted or is in the dictionary. Some seem self-explanatory, but others seem arbitrary, and feel like hangovers from an old mediaeval version of the language.
An example of a self-explanatory variation would be “burned” and “burnt”. One is the past particle of the verb to burn, the other is a description of the quality of having been burned. Although interchangeable, one generally feels more appropriate than the other in specific circumstances. I’m ok with that particular t/ed switcheroo. It’s stuff like the following that I’m confused about:
- Vexed/Vext
- Fixed/Fixt
- Flocked/Flockt
- Picked/Pickt
- Skinned/Skint (borderline case, “skint” has another meaning)
Those are all in the dictionary, but these aren’t:
- Backed/Backt
- Racked/Rackt
- Packed/Packt
- Fucked/Fuckt
I can’t for the life of me figure out the rule, if such a rule even exists.
Cheers!
Ok, but none of the words OP listed are still in use, if they ever were. All of their example words end in -ck or -x, while none of yours do, and most of your examples have taken on different meanings in common usage and no longer serve as a past-tense verb
Yeah OP’s words are definitely not accepted but British English still has lots, another I just thought of is Dreamt
They lent me a tent, but the one they sent had been bent. I wept, but at least it hadn’t been lost in the mail. I’m sure they never meant any harm.