Enough - when it means anything but

In part 1, I explored the reasons the word enough is spelled so weirdly, and traced over 1000 years of the history of the English language to do so. 

Source

In recent times, numerous attempts have been made to make English spelling more regular, less chaotic, but all have failed. Yes, there really was a group called the Speling Reform Asoshiasun. 

So enough continues to be spelled as enough. 

Spelling is one of the areas of language; it changes over time through popular use, but history shows it rarely does so through dictate and rule making. 

However, it's in popular use that the word enough gets totally weird. Enough might occasionally be spelled enuf, and we get it; but sometimes its meaning changes within a single sentence. And we get that too. That's why 'Enuf is enuf' makes sense.

The way we use words beyond their literal meaning can tell us so much about ourselves. 

What can we learn by exploring the word enough? 

Not too weird at first: the meaning of the word enough.

Spelling is just the beginning of enough's weirdness - it's weird in so many areas of language. In part 1, I drew a diagram of the areas of the study of language, with letters (orthography) on an an angle to sounds (phonology) to represent the mismatch of these two areas of language. 

Now I want to venture into some other language areas of word meaning, grammar, purpose and use. 

 

Areas of language study: the weird spelling of 'enough' is just the beginning ...

It starts seemingly reasonably, with the grammar (syntax) and the meaning (semantics) of enough:

♦️ Adjective: occurring in such quantity, quality, or scope as to fully meet demands, needs, or expectations (enough food for everyone)

♦️ Pronoun: a sufficient number, quantity, or amount (enough were present to constitute a quorum)

♦️ Adverb: in or to a degree or quantity that satisfies or that is sufficient or necessary for satisfaction (he is qualified enough for the position).

So, enough functions as three parts of speech, and consistently means sufficient for all three: the adjective (sufficient), pronoun (state of sufficiency), and adverb (sufficiently). 

However, when enough is used in various English expressions, it can mean anything but. 

Enough the adjective and how much is enough stuff?

Alison Faulkner quote

As an adjective, enough is subjective - that is, what constitutes 'enough' food, for example, is relative to demand, need or expectation, which is a personal, subjective idea. 

The word does not refer to a specific amount, but to a person's judgement of the suitability of an amount. (Contrast this with more objective adjectives like wet, flat or purple). This means each person has to decide what enough means in that context, which may or may not align with another person's view. 

How much is enough food, shoes, toys, money, possessions, power? It's really your decision. 

This subjectivity evokes the human sometimes endless drive to acquire stuff. It highlights that, no matter what the ads tell you, getting more, more, more, and more will never be enough, by definition. There is no objective enough amount. Our idea about what makes 'enough' of something is up to each of us.

When the meaning of a word is context-specific and personal, this moves it into the language area of the purpose of communicating, or discourse.

Enough the pronoun and never enough discourse about values.

When enough is used as a value statement, it often stops meaning 'sufficient'.

Some examples are: 

♦️ I've had enough of your foolishness.
♦️ She had had enough of his criticism.
♦️ We've had enough of your lies.

In these examples enough means 'too much'. From the mouths of frazzled parents, 'Enough!' is usually a demand to desist with noise, demands, carry-on. It works as social regulation by the parent: 'That's enough of your fussing; just sit here quietly now'. It means what one person judges to be okay, another judges to be too much. 

Snipped from the socials

But as for Enough is enough, I'm not sure if the word enough means:  

♦️ Enough (sufficient) is enough (too much)
♦️ Enough (too much) is enough (too much)
♦️ Enough (too much) is enough (sufficient). 

Each time it is used, it could be different - only the speaker knows.

But 'ENUF is ENUF !!!' says you're seriously annoyed.

Enough is enough means you are saying it's time to stop something undesirable or wrong (like people being killed by gun violence or chaotic English spelling). 

So, that's two subjective judgements: sufficient/too much (by my judgement) of an undesirable/wrong thing (by my judgement). And others may or may not agree. 

Then there is a whole range of sayings using enough that play on its vague and subjective meaning: 

♦️ Too much is not enough - innumerable books with this same title, about acquisitiveness and excess 
♦️ Too much is never enough - Homer can feel sick and keep eating cheese

Too much is not enough and Too much is never enough!

♦️ One is too much and 1000 is not enough - drinking and alcoholism 

♦️ Too much and never enough - biography of Donald Trump exploring the pathology of the family that created his narcissism and endless acquisition 

♦️ Too much of not enough - the tendency to avoid people who are endlessly needy, perhaps missing out on having needs met as a child (see the 2011 Silverchair song of this title).

That's the pronoun enough doing some heavy duty work with a lot of different sayings. 

Subjectivity underlies the use of enough the pronoun in moral statements about greed and excess. 

Plenty Should Have Been Enough. Olivia Steele 2014 Source

But the adverb form of enough is another level of weirdness again.

Enough is an intense kind of adverb

In school we learnt that adjectives modify nouns: happy girl, difficult task, abstract idea, while adverbs modify verbs: run quickly, qualify early, sing softly. 

Enough is in the small category of adverbs that can also modify other adverbs³ (funnily enough, run very quickly, visit almost daily, knocked too softly, it was somewhat tiresome). Unusually, enough goes after the adverb that it modifies.  

When an adverb modifies another adverb, it communicates something about the extent or intensity of that other adverb. How often does she visit? Almost daily. As a category, these type of adverbs is sometimes called intensifiers.   

Enough the adverb: intensity of the meaning or the speaker?

Here's some examples of adverbs modified with enough:

♦️ Funnily enough… sometimes means oddly, ironically, in actual fact, or others.
♦️ Interestingly enough… Jodie Foster said women are more interesting after 40 in the year she was 40.

Funnily enough Source        Interestingly enough Source

 ♦️ Strangely enough... seems to also mean funnily enough, which is funny, as strange things are not funny.

What nature of intensity does enough convey? Does it mean more or less funny, interesting or strange? 

Well, none of those. 

First, it conveys informality. It does this by filling in space with an optional word - a common signal of informality. The sentences make sense without the word enough. 

Secondly, enough is telling the listener the speaker is not definite or not certain what they are saying will be funny, interesting or strange to the listener. The speaker is hedging their bets and allowing a bit of room in interpretation. 

If anything, enough communicates the intensity of conviction by the speaker, in case the listener doesn’t agree (subjectivity again). This takes enough beyond grammar, meaning and discourse, and into the study of how language is used (pragmatics) to signal social information on top of the apparent meaning of what is being said.

Enough signals that the speaker will leave it to the listener to decide: 'I am suggesting that something is a little bit funny or interesting. You may or may not find it that way'. It uses enough to mean 'barely sufficient' or 'sufficient to me': a bit funny or interesting, but maybe not sufficiently funny or interesting. That's up to the listener. 

The subjective meaning with its context-specific interpretation based on a shared understanding of what makes something funny, interesting or strange is the reason enough features in many sayings that English language learners struggle with. 

Words say so much more than what they mean

How do each of us learn what enough means when it really just depends on the context and on the intent of the speaker? Well, the same way we learn to spell enough - the product of the fractious marriage of two language systems - by practice, correction and interaction. 

The words we use communicate meaning, but they also communicate conviction, conviviality, informality, invitation to discuss, etc.- our words say a lot about the relationship between the speaker and the listener, and between the speaker and what they are saying. When words play those sorts of roles, they can adopt a literal meaning quite different from their dictionary definition. And they still make sense and we get it (most of us, eventually) because we all want to communicate more than facts and information.

Words are fundamentally social tools, and exploring language tells us so much about our society and about ourselves. 

Language and words are somewhat (but predictably) chaotic and irrational because humans are.

Footnotes

1. Enough also modifies adjectives: qualified enough, satisfied enough, tired enough. 
• I did want include the interesting saying: fair (adj) enough (adv), but enough words already! Fair means 'even, just or equal'. Fair enough though often means 'tolerable, so-so, just okay'. Enough no longer means 'sufficient'. It means 'passably', 'just sufficient to qualify as fair'. You have been fair enough to her and to me to tell me that; It's also come to mean 'barely but okay' or 'equivalent if not equal'. Last night you took my money, so to-day I took your horse; that's fair enough!'
• But it also has a very specific colloquial use: it means that you are willing to admit something you initially disagreed with, or that you're accepting it reluctantly or under sufferance. I love knowing that we have created a saying for this somewhat difficult interaction. 

Image credits, used under Creative Commons Licences

• Buletin ov the Speling Reform Asoshiashun 1880. Spelling Reform Association https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/1880_SpellingReform_Bulletin_Boston.png [Public domain]
• Enough is a decision Alison Faulkner quote: https://ro.pinterest.com/pin/98727416820938948/ 
• Plenty should have been enough from Olivia Steele, Works and Installations, 2014 Scrap metal yard, Nashville, Tennessee http://www.oliviasteele.com/files/oliviasteele_book_monograph.pdf  
• Enuf is enuf!!! poster snipped from the socials [No source] 
• Book titles: snipped from web search for images; Homer and never enough cheese: https://memegenerator.net/instance/69473867/homer-simpson-drooling-mmmmmmm-when-too-much-cheese-is-never-enough [Used under terms]
• Funnily enough: https://thesaurus.plus/img/synonyms/193/funnily_enough.png; interestingly enough: https://www.idlehearts.com/48588/i-think-that-women-are-more-interesting-in-their-forties-interestingly-enough-said-in-the-year-jodie-was-40 
• Other images by the author