Could you unloosen my laces?

At first glance, it simply seems like a convoluted way of saying, “tighten” - along the lines of ‘unfasten’ and ‘unlace.’

But no, thanks to The Atlantic Monthly’s authoritative Word Court, I now know that “unloosen” actually equates to “loosen” (try explaining that to a mathematician). If you’re not convinced, Shakespeare and Shelley and Sheridan used “unloose”.

I did some research and learned that it just so happened that un and in were randomly used in words long before their non-un and non-in (doesn’t non seem innocuous by comparison?) counterparts came into being, as a result of which all of them stuck around, meaning pretty much the same thing. For instance, the word “inflammable” simply preceded “flammable,” and now both are here to stay (till someone actually lights something on fire thinking it’s IN-flammable).
And then there’s fat chance and slim chance that mean roughly the same thing; not to mention I give or don’t give a rat’s ass. The list goes on.

The English language sure could use some unloosening...

And as if that were not enough, The Unword Dictionary allows you to make up your own words. After all, in this world of open-sourcing everything, shouldn't words be given their due?