20 Obsolete English Words that Should Make a Comeback

[Bruce Wayne]

http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/20-obsolete-english-words-that-should-make-a-comeback/

 

[Pompidou]

I'm as in favor of bringing back old words as I am in favor of coming up with new ones. A language that spans from Beowulf's vocabulary through to the latest innovation in text-message-speak would give a writer a toolkit for any purpose. It's all about options. Twitter-light sounds like a social media application for the technologically impaired.

 

[HepKitty]

got a 404 on the link

 

[randooch]

Link worked fine, better, in fact, than those words would in daily conversation. I try to keep some words alive (like pusillanimous), but I always wind up defining it for whoever's hapless enough to be listening. Lately I've been trying to revive short but sweet words, like . . .

 

[Pompidou]

Whæt!

"Whæt!" aught to make a comeback. It means something to the effect of, "Hey!" "Look at me!" "I'm important!" "I'm talking!" - all in one nice little package - and was used to get the reader's attention as the first word of Beowulf. We need more words to effectively allow more people to draw attention to themselves. One word. Whæt! Doesn't matter what you say after that. You've got your five minutes of fame.

 

[Talbot]

Time to get my freck on!

 

[gegarrenton]

I'm as in favor of bringing back old words as I am in favor of coming up with new ones. A language that spans from Beowulf's vocabulary through to the latest innovation in text-message-speak would give a writer a toolkit for any purpose. It's all about options. Twitter-light sounds like a social media application for the technologically impaired.

That's me to a tee.

 

[PADDY]

I was brought up in that generation by those who had been through the 30's and 40's and world war, Depression..etc, and they as kids had been influenced by their Victorian and Edwardian parents and relations, so I guess, I'm the last of that generation to have been directly influenced in their language and codes of behaviour.

Words that were commonly used in our household (yep, it was a household, we had a pantry, living room, drawing room, breakfast room..etc), and which I still come out with when not thinking...

Balderdash; baloney; Poppycock; Blaggard; Guttersnipe; Chum; Piffal; the flicks; okey doke; toodleloo; cheerio; hoover; a gas; ...

 

[Pompidou]

Baloney, poppycock, chum, okey doke, toodleloo, cheerio - I'm glad to say I've used those words. Why, I remember many times, growing up, when I was full of baloney. If "The flicks" is movies like I think, then that one too. I don't think we ever owned a "Hoover" brand vacuum, but I'd know what you were talking about. Old words are pretty nifty.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Blatherskate.

Slumgullion.

Winebibber.

Hoyden.

Puckerbrush.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Blatherskate.

Slumgullion.

Winebibber.

Hoyden.

Puckerbrush.

Would you please be so kind as to give a definition & use these in a senctece?

Thanx!!!
Charlie

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Always spreading gossip! That man is nothing but a worthless old blatherskate!"

"Oh no, not slumgullion for supper again. You threw all those leftovers in the pot, didn't you?"

"Hmph! Uncle Caleb is passed out drunk behind the barn again. I always knew he was a good-for-nothin' old winebibber."

"You get in here this minute and put on a proper dress. No daughter of mine is gonna run around the streets in dungarees like a common hoyden!"

"Awwww, you'll never find that ball now. He hit it way down there in the puckerbrush!"

 

[scottyrocks]

I think we used to call them puckerbushes.

 

[Atterbury Dodd]

How about gadabouts and being footloose in the country? I never see the word footloose used anymore.

 

[PADDY]

Lizzie - a few of those words (or similar) are Scots-Irish! And you'd here them still in use in parts of North Ireland and certainly west coast of Scotland!!

For example: A hallion and 'To blether.'

 

[Pompidou]

Footloose was the name of a dancing movie about what, 20 years ago? Kevin Bacon I think. Never saw it, and don't really plan to, but I do know if someone says footloose s/he's talking about dancing. Footloose and fancy free - not sure who said it - maybe my aunt.

 

[Atterbury Dodd]

Actually, I think of a footloose person as a kind of solitary wanderer, somebody that cannot settle down. If used in the vintage sense. According to Webster's New World Dictionary, first published 1953: Footloose: free to go wherever one likes or do as one likes.

 

[Nick D]

Whæt!

"Whæt!" aught to make a comeback. It means something to the effect of, "Hey!" "Look at me!" "I'm important!" "I'm talking!" - all in one nice little package - and was used to get the reader's attention as the first word of Beowulf. .

Hwæt?

 

[LizzieMaine]

My mother always called a wild, undisciplined kid a "Tartar." I think that's one step down from a helot.

 

[Fletch]

A helot is an agrarian slave of Sparta. They were an undercaste, okay to brutalize and even kill ritually, but necessary for the survival of the state. (I guess one step down would be someone unnecessary, ie: a good-for-nothing bum.)