You make me love you with a Triple L

[Dan Jones]

Using "less" as a suffix is well established. Ie thoughtless, clueless, hopeless etc etc.

However, if one neer-do-well character wanted to describe another character as being sans-testiculars, and used the phrase "ballless" I am presented with the unicorn of the English language... a triple L. I like the insult, so should it be "ball-less" (which reads wrong) or "balless" (just... no) or - horror of horrors - ballless?

 

[HareBrain]

Of those three, I think you have to go with ball-less. That doesn't read wrongly to me, and it's much less tripping-up than the others. (There's a possible fourth option, ballsless, I guess.)

 

[Wruter]

Good grief, Dan, still relieving your characters of their manhoods?

Ball-less reads okay to me.

 

[Randy M.]

Testicless?


Randy M.

 

[Nick B]

Got to be ball-less if you really need it to be that. I find it a bit of a stumble, but thats the only one that isn't a total eye-bleeder.

 

[Gonk the Insane]

I think probably hyphenated for readability, but I do like the triple-L (whether it's correct or not).

 

[tinkerdan]

En Oxford

Home North American English ball-less

Definition of ball-less in English:

• 
  
• 
  

ball-less
adjective

• 1Having no ball or balls.
  
  
• 2US slang, rare Slang (chiefly US). Of a male: having no testicles (rare); (chiefly in extended use) unmanly; weak, lacking in nerve.

Origin
Mid 19th century; earliest use found in William Thom (?1798–1848), poet and weaver. From ball + -less.

Pronunciation
ball-less
/ˈbɔːlləs/


(Poem #1080) The Lama
The one-l lama,
He's a priest.
The two-l llama,
He's a beast.
And I will bet
A silk pajama
There isn't any
Three-l lllama.*

-- Ogden Nash

 

[Dan Jones]

Good grief, Dan, still relieving your characters of their manhoods?

Nope, just a random insult for a coward this time, you'll be relieved to know!