18 obsolete words, which never should have gone out of style Just like facts and flies, English words have life-spans. Some are thousands of years old, from before English officially existed, others change, or are replaced or get ditched entirely. Here are 18 uncommon or obsolete words that we think may have died early. We found them in two places: a book called “The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten” by Jeffrey Kacirk, and on a blog called Obsolete Word of The Day that’s been out of service since 2010. Both are fantastic— you should check them out. Snoutfair: A person with a handsome countenance. Pussyvan: A flurry, temper Wonder-wench: A sweetheart Lunting: Walking while smoking a pipe California widow: A married woman whose husband is away from her for any extended period Groak: To silently watch someone while they are eating, hoping to be invited to join them. Jirble: To pour out (a liquid) with an unsteady hand: as, he jirbles out a dram. Curglaff: The shock felt in bathing when one first plunges into the cold water Spermologer: A picker-up of trivia, of current news, a gossip monger, what we would today call a columnist. Tyromancy: Divining by the coagulation of cheese. Beef-witted: Having an inactive brain, thought to be from eating too much beef. Queerplungers: Cheats who throw themselves into the water in order that they may be taken up by their accomplices, who carry them to one of the houses appointed by the Humane Society for the recovery of drowned persons, where they are rewarded by the society with a guinea each, and the supposed drowned person, pretending he was driven to that extremity by great necessity, is also frequently sent away with a contribution in his pocket. Englishable: That which may be rendered into English. Resistentialism: The seemingly spiteful behavior shown by inanimate objects. Bookwright: A writer of books; an author; a term of slight contempt Soda-squirt: One who works at a soda fountain in New Mexico With squirrel: Pregnant — Vance Randolph’s “Down in the Holler: A Gallery of Ozark Folk Speech”, 1953. Zafty: A person very easily imposed upon. Thank you for reading Alfred Nigel Stark.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 15:57:57 +0000
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