BEAUTIFUL WORDS
BUILD A BETTER VOCABULARY
Words posted by @kairosoflife on Twitter
under the hashtag #beautifulwords
This section is still under construction. The word lists are slowly being transferred here from Creativity Chaos
BUILD A BETTER VOCABULARY
Words posted by @kairosoflife on Twitter
under the hashtag #beautifulwords
This section is still under construction. The word lists are slowly being transferred here from Creativity Chaos
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101 OBSOLETE WORDS
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Each year, 1,000+ words are entered into the English language through an authority like the Oxford English Dictionary. Adding the word is easy - taking it out is harder. Mary O’Neill, managing editor of the Collins English Dictionary - the largest at 2,305 pages - says “We rarely take words out of our dictionaries. If we find that a word has fallen out of general use, or is not used as much as it was before, we usually label such words as ‘obsolete,’ ‘archaic,’ or ‘old-fashioned’ rather than deleting them entirely.”
Print dictionaries are designed for different audiences—from children to second-language learners—so it’s rare for a word to be categorically eliminated. As lexicographer Diane Nicholls says, “If a word isn’t in one dictionary, you’ll probably find it in another if you look at enough of them.”
Lexicographers do have a process for deciding whether it’s fair to label a word as obsolete. The evidence for whether a word is in current use comes from analyzing huge databases of language collected from a wide range of sources including academic journals, novels, newspapers, magazines, blogs, emails, social media, TV, and radio. Collins relies on its constantly updated, 4.5 billion-word database of language in current use, while the Oxford refers to its database of 2.5 billion words.
Peter Gilliver, senior editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, explains that the labeling of a word as obsolete relies on conclusive evidence based on a set of rules. To be labeled obsolete the general rule is that there is no quotable evidence of the word since 1930.
Here is a list of 101 Obsolete Words that deserve a second look:
Print dictionaries are designed for different audiences—from children to second-language learners—so it’s rare for a word to be categorically eliminated. As lexicographer Diane Nicholls says, “If a word isn’t in one dictionary, you’ll probably find it in another if you look at enough of them.”
Lexicographers do have a process for deciding whether it’s fair to label a word as obsolete. The evidence for whether a word is in current use comes from analyzing huge databases of language collected from a wide range of sources including academic journals, novels, newspapers, magazines, blogs, emails, social media, TV, and radio. Collins relies on its constantly updated, 4.5 billion-word database of language in current use, while the Oxford refers to its database of 2.5 billion words.
Peter Gilliver, senior editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, explains that the labeling of a word as obsolete relies on conclusive evidence based on a set of rules. To be labeled obsolete the general rule is that there is no quotable evidence of the word since 1930.
Here is a list of 101 Obsolete Words that deserve a second look:
- Alack: expression of sorrow or regret
- Ambuscade: an ambush
- Appetency: a longing or desire
- Apricity: sun is warm on a cold winter day
- Bedlam: an asylum
- Beef-witted: Having an inactive brain, thought to be from eating too much beef.
- Bijoux: jewelry or trinkets
- Boreism: The act or condition of being a bore.
- Brabble: To bicker loudly about nothing.
- Brannigan: A drinking bout; a spree or binge.
- Bumper: generous glass of an alcoholic drink
- Buss: a kiss
- Caducity: the infirmity of old age; senility
- California widow: A married woman whose husband is away from her for any extended period
- Callipygian: used in the 1640s it means to have beautifully shaped buttocks.
- Chicane: deceive; hoodwink
- Cicisbeov: a married woman’s male companion or lover
- Cockalorum: a braggart, a person with an overly high opinion of himself.
- Collogue: talk confidentially
- Coxcomb: a vain and conceited man; a dandy
- Corrade: to scrape together; to gather together from various sources
- Crapulous: describes that feeling you get when you realize you’ve eaten and/or drank yourself sick.
- Curmuring: loud rumbling of your stomach
- Deliciate: to take one’s pleasure, enjoy oneself, revel, luxuriate
- Elflock: if you have wavy hair and you wake up with it tangled and mangled, that’s elflock, as though the elves have tied it into knots during the night.
- Englishable: that which may be rendered into English
- Esurient: hungry
- Excogigate: to plot, plan, or devise
- Fain: pleased or willing under the circumstances
- Fainéant: an idle or ineffective person
- Fandangle: a useless or purely ornamental thing
- Fizgig: a silly or flirtatious young woman
- Fudgel: pretending to work when you’re really just goofing off.
- Fuzzle: to intoxicate or confuse.
- Gorgonize: from the early 17th century, this word means to have a mesmerizing effect on someone.
- Garboil: confusion
- Grimalkin: a cat
- Groak: to silently watch someone while they are eating, hoping to be invited to join them
- Grog-Blossom: the rosy red hue of an alcoholic’s nose.
- Growlery: created by Charles Dickens. It means “a place where you can retreat from the world when you’re in bad mood.”
- Grumpish: alternative to sullen or grumpy.
- Hearken: listen
- Hideosity: state or condition of being hideous; extreme ugliness.
- Hoddypeak: a fool, simpleton, noodle, blockhead.
- Hornswoggle: to scam or con.
- Houppelande: refers to a cloak worn during the Middle Ages
- Hugger-mugger: to act in a secretive manner
- Illecebrous: alluring, enticing,
- Jade: a bad-tempered or disreputable woman
- Jargogle: to confuse or jumble
- Jirble: to pour out liquid with an unsteady hand
- Jollux: slang to refer to a fat person.
- Kench: to laugh loudly
- Levant: abscond leaving unpaid debts
- Ludibrious: apt to be a subject of jest or mockery. This word describes a person, thing or situation that is likely to be the butt of jokes.
- Lunting: go for a walk and smoke a pipe.
- Malagrugrous: dismal. This adjective is from Scots and may be derived from an old Irish word that refers to the wrinkling of one’s brow.
- Monsterful: out of the 1810s, this word refers to something rather extraordinary and wonderful.
- Nithing: a contemptible or despicable person
- Overmorrow: the day after tomorrow
- Peregrinate: travel or wander from place to place
- Periapt: a charm or amulet
- Perissology: use of more words than are necessary; redundancy or superfluity of expression.
- Pismire: literally a word that’s derived from small insect and piss.
- Posy: short motto or line of verse inscribed inside a ring
- Pussyvan: a flurry, temper
- Quidnunc: an inquisitive, gossipy person
- Quagswagging: the action of shaking to and fro.
- Quockerwodger: from the 1850s, refers to a wooden puppet that was controlled by strings.
- Quotha: expression of surprise or contempt
- Rapscallion: a mischievous person
- Recreant: cowardly
- Resistentialism: the seemingly spiteful behavior shown by inanimate objects
- Salamander: a red-hot iron or poker
- Sanative: healing
- Sanguinolency: addiction to bloodshed.
- Scapegrace: a mischievous person; a rascal
- Sciolist: a person who pretends to be knowledgeable
- Scriptitation: a 17th-century word meaning “continual writing.”
- Shrift: forgiveness
- Sluberdegullion: slacker; couch potato
- Slugabed: a lazy person who stays in bed late
- Snoutfair: refers to a good-looking person and comes from the 1500s.
- Snowbrowth: dating back to the 1590s, snowbrowth refers to freshly melted snow.
- Spermologer: a picker-up of trivia, of current news, a gossip monger
- Tittynope: a small quantity of something left over.
- Twattle: to chatter mindlessly or gossip.
- Twitter-light: a 1600s alternative to the time of day we call twilight
- Tyromancy: divining by the coagulation of cheese
- Verily: truly; certainly; confidently
- Wellaway: expression of sorrow or lamentation
- Whitherward: toward what or which place
- Widdendream: a state of mental disturbance or confusion.
- With squirrel: pregnant
- Wonder-wench: a sweetheart
- Wood mad: insane; wild
- Yemeles: an Old English and Middle English word meaning careless, heedless, or negligent
- Yoicks: expression of surprise or excitement
- Zafty: a person very easily imposed upon
- Zenzizenzizenzic: means to the power of eight. In the 16th century, when people explained it to one another, they’d say: “It doth represent the square of squares quite squarely.”
- Zounds: an expression of surprise or indignation
STARLIGHT POETRY BY KAI
View Me on Twitter @kairosoflife
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© 2019-2020 Copyright Starlight Poetry
View Me on Twitter @kairosoflife
See Creativity Chaos - a Creativity Blog by Kai
Contact | About | Reprints & Copyrights
© 2019-2020 Copyright Starlight Poetry