Here’s a good start for 2015 Good post by our Susan. I enjoyed being corrected by her as recently as yesterday. She has a very uplifting approached to correcting your spelling. So enjoy below 26 Forgotten Words You Should Start Using Immediately AFTER-WISE (adj.) Defined by Webster as wise afterwards or too late -- or in other words, the perfect term for describing that feeling of knowing exactly what you should have said (or done) after the opportunity to say it (or do it) has passed you by. Other useful after- words on Websters list were after-game (a subsequent scheme or plan), after-supper (the time between supper and going to bed), and after-tossing (the rolling of the sea after a storm has passed). BABBLEMENT (n.) Senseless prattle or unmeaning words, according to Webster. To twattle, incidentally, is to gossip or chatter. CYCOPEDE Cycopede is all but unique to Webster, who defined it as both a variation of cyclopedia (as in encyclopedia), and as a term for the entire circle of human knowledge. DAGGLE-TAIL (adj.) As a verb, to daggle is to befoul or dirty, or more specifically, to trail in mud or wet grass. The adjective daggle-tail ultimately describes someone having the lower ends of garments defiled with mud. EAR-ERECTING (adj.) Another of Websters clever compound adjectives, this time describing any sound that sets up the ears. FOPDOODLE (n.) The perfect name for an insignificant fellow -- Webster described this word as vulgar and not used. GASTRILOQUIST (n.) An old-fashioned word for a ventriloquist, or as Webster explains, one who so modified his voice that it seems to come from another person or place. HUGGER-MUGGER (n.) On the rare occasions when hugger-mugger appears in modern English, its typically used to describe a state of noisy confusion or uproar. According to Webster, however, it was a low cant word synonymous with privacy or clandestineness -- doing something in hugger-mugger, he explained, meant doing it in absolute secrecy. ILLAQUEATION (n.) A formal word for the act of ensnaring; a catching or entrapping. JACKPUDDING (n.) A jackpudding is a merry-andrew or a zany according to Webster -- in other words, a joker who acts the fool to make other people laugh. KISSING-CRUST (n.) As loaves of bread expand in the oven as theyre cooked, a kissing-crust forms when they spread so far that they touch. LONGINQUITY (n.) Derived from the Latin word for distance, longinquity is a formal word for remoteness or isolation, or for any vast distance in space or time. MAFFLE (v.) To stammer or stumble on your words. To faffel means the same thing. NUNCUPATORY (adj.) If something is nuncupatory then it exists in name only. The word can also be used to describe a verbal rather than written agreement. OBAMBULATE (v.) Literally means to walk about. The horseback equivalent, incidentally, is to obequitate -- or to ride about. PACKTHREAD (n.) The strong string or twine used to wrap parcels? Thats packthread. QUADRIN (n.) A quadrin was old copper coin, which Webster explains was in value [worth] about a farthing. Its name can also be used figuratively of any tiny amount of something, or an insignificant amount of cash. RAKESHAME (n.) A vile, dissolute wretch -- also known as a rampallion, a scroyle, a runnion, a pander, a cullion and (if they seem destined to a life of crime) a crack-rope. SHEEP-BITE (v.) To sheep-bite is to practice petty thefts according to Webster. Some of his other criminally underused S-words include scantle (to divide into small pieces), scranch (to grind with the teeth), stalactical (resembling an icicle), squabbish (thick, fat, heavy) and stramash (to beat, to destroy). Less useful is sniggle, defined as to fish for eels by thrusting the bait into their holes. TARDIGRADOUS (adj.) Slow-paced; moving or stepping slowly. UPTRAIN (v.) To uptrain is to educate -- literally to train up. VERNATE (v.) Derived from the Latin word for the spring, to vernate is to become young again. WRANGLESOME (adj.) To wrangle is to dispute angrily or to involve in contention, according to Webster. So if youre wranglesome, then youre quarrelsome and contentious. XEROPHAGY (n.) Xerophagy is the eating of dry meats, according to Webster, who described the practice as a sort of fast among the primitive Christians. In all, he listed just 13 words under X in his dictionary - which is 13 more than Samuel Johnson, who instead stated that X is a letter which, though found in Saxon words, begins no word in the English language. YOKE-MATE (n.) Also called a yoke-fellow, a yoke-mate is an associate or companion. ZUFFOLO (n.) Z fairs slightly better than X in Websters dictionary, with a total of 85 entries in all. A zuffolo, he explains, is a little flute... especially that which is used to teach birds.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 01:35:16 +0000
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