Restive. As in "Syria Escalates Crackdown As Troops Go To Restive City."

The word is beyond confusing. A restive place sounds like a place getting a lot of rest. Instead it's pretty close to the opposite.

Obviously, we have a lot of words where the main part suggests the opposite of the meaning. (Say, restless.) But those words have a prefix or a suffix that connote that negation -- a-, un, -less, and so forth. The suffix "-ive" usually serves as an amplifier, not a negator. A festive city is a city that might be having a festival, not a town of morose, lonely individuals.

Is there some board to which I can appeal to change this word?

Words I'd Like To See Changed

By Jonathan Chait

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