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(lol) You're welcome. We don't even need the OED for that one, it's in the regular dictionary. I'd recently looked it up at dictionary.com because I knew people who had "Hough" for a last name. It's pronounced "Hock" so I thought, hmmm.....to the interwebz!Quote:
Originally Posted by fooler
"Strumpet!" That's a good one, chemteach.
The list of archaic words I linked earlier today has some lovely ones. I found that when I was reading Ngaio Marsh's "Scales of Justice." (Great old-fashioned mystery). The English village in that one she called "Swevenings," saying it meant "dream," and I'd never heard that before.
"Sweven – A vision or a dream. “[The Queen] went in to the Sultan and assured him that their daughter had suffered during all her wedding-night from swevens and nightmare.” 1001 Nights, translated by Richard Burton."
Drayage. I worked for the Baldwin Piano Company in the 1980's and the shipping charges were still called "drayage".
The icebox thing is interesting. I'm 63 and until I was three we still had an icebox. My earliest horse memory is waiting on the front porch for the iceman who arrived in a horse drawn wagon to deliver the ice. I couldn't wait for that horse to get there. This was a small North Carolina town which was decidedly behind the times.
Strumpet reminds me of other words seldom used: tart, trollop, guttersnipe and my all time favourite in this genre, loose woman.
Yes.Quote:
Originally Posted by mvp
And bitch is a female dog, used as insult when applied to human.
Have not heard "gyp" used as human insult...or "queen" (cat) or mare. Human females may be called "fillies" not as an insult, but not mares. "Cow" is an insult but ewe and doe are seldom heard applied to humans.
All interesting.
That's such a neat memory to have. I never saw that process in action, but the thought of those horses who knew their route and all their stops just tickles me as a demonstration of the way man and horse used to work together. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by redhorse5
Linoleum is one that is still being used even tho its really been vinyl for about 50 years or more!
Gay...meaning light-hearted, happy...isn't used anymore. I think a book titled "Our Hearts were Young and Gay" would have a whole 'nuther meaning these days!
I tell my 7th graders not to lollygaggle in the hall. Then, I have to explain what that means.
Lewis Carroll invented "chortle" in Alice in Wonderland. It didn't exist before then. Specifically, in the poem "Jabberwocky." 'O frabjous day! Calloo! Callay! He chortled in his joy.'Quote:
Originally Posted by horsefaerie
(A bunch of us in freshman English memorized Jabberwocky because we loved it so.)
I'm partial to "vignette" and "petticoat."
My office-mate and I often break spontaneously into recitations of either "Jabberwocky" or "The Walrus and The Carpenter" .Quote:
Originally Posted by Guin
I do believe it rather frightens some of our students.
LOL - not in any of the dictionaries available to me at this time or on the web. I searched for the word for a few years after I first read the short story with no luck.Quote:
Originally Posted by Anne FS
I am absolutely positively going to start using all of these words in my classroom next week. My 8th graders won't know what hit them. They'll be flummoxed!
Just don't call them little strumpets and you'll be fine, Glfprncs! I use the words loathe, dawdle, shirk and waggle in my classroom--there is usually a bit of confuzzling going on (I made that one up!).
Well we still say it here. If we are a little old-fashioned we may wear and drop our strides instead:)Quote:
Originally Posted by Houndhill
But when I'm 'irked' I get a few odd looks for saying so.
Chest of drawers is still widely used in England.Quote:
Originally Posted by DarkenStormy
Lunge is the way we spell it in England. Longe just sounds odd to me. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Anne FS
Now, now.......around here "supper" is used daily. It's definitely a southern term more than anything and typically is used for the evening meal. Dinner is more of the main meal and in the south frequently meant the mid-day meal.Quote:
Originally Posted by glfprncs
"Loathe" is a lovely word. Fun to say.Quote:
Originally Posted by Calvincrowe
Another favorite word of mine I try to work into conversation is "defenestration," which is the act of throwing someone out the window. I think it's fabulous that there's a word for this.