“Back in college days, I was interested in Benjamin Lee Whorf and, because of his writings on the Hopi language, tried to learn it for a brief while. Whorf described “aspects” of verbs, which are not conjugations or moods, or declensions like nouns. I will list a few of his Hopi ones and then four in English that I have discovered over a great many years. One of them (beginning “humble”) was submitted by a Facebook reader. The others I found. I wonder if anyone can find any others.

First a few Hopi ones from a piece of writing about them: The Hopi punctual aspect ripi (it gives a flash) becomes the segmentative ripi’pita (it is sparkling). Pa’ci(it is notched) turned into paci’cita(it is serrated). Wa’la (it gives a slosh) kickd up a sea wala’lata. Ta’pa (it gives a snap) keeps on snapping: tapa’pata.

English (what is happening in this instance of what Whorf called a “covert category”)?

Vigil, Vigilance, Vigilante.

Despair, Desperate, Desperado.

Humble, Humility, Humiliation.

Zeal, Zealot, Zealotry.

It seems to me that the meaning both intensifies and flips, and the hidden category is the implicit dialectic in all meaning.”

— Richard Grossinger