A man can unkempt or innocent, but can he be “kempt” or “nocent”? This week we’ll eyeball words of that ilk. We’ll “accentuate the positive”.
corrigible — capable of being corrected, reformed, or improved [Middle Latin corrigere, to correct]
The source of everything respectable in man either as an intellectual or as a moral being [is] that his errors are corrigible. He is capable of correcting his mistakes, by discussion and experience. Not by experience alone. There must be discussion, to show how experience is to be interpreted. — John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
People often represent the weakest link in the [computer] security chain and are chronically responsible for the failure of security systems. … I tell prospective clients that the mathematics are impeccable, the computers are vincible, the networks are lousy, and the people are abysmal. —Bruce Schneider, Secrets and Lies
Thanks, Bob. I admice your talent as a poet, and I’m grateful to you for sharing it with us.
ruthful — 1. full of compassion or pity. . 2. inducing compassion or pity; lamentable, piteous ruth — the quality of being compassionate; the feeling of sorrow for another
And when we have our armours buckled on, The venom'd vengeance ride upon our swords, Spur them to ruthful work, rein them from ruth. — Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida
[translation: When we are armed, We carry vengeance in our swords, And use them for sad work without feelisg sadness (compassion).]
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scrutable - that can be understood by scrutiny. Chiefly opposed to inscrutable
Thurber shows an ordinary man with extraordinary dreams who remains, ironically, all too scrutable, -Walter Mitty’s Reimagination, in The New Yorker, June 21, 2012
trammel — verb: to hinder the activity or free movement of; noun: a restraint; something that restricts activity, expression, or progress Compare untrammeled, which is used only as an adjective, meaning “not limited or restricted; unrestrained”.
[T]hs plan does not unnecessarily trammel the interests of white employees, neither requiring the discharge of white workers and their replacement with new black hirees, nor creating an absolute bar to the advancement of white employees … — U.S. Supreme Court, in Steelworkers v. Weber (1979)
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