[murph]

Bureau
Supper (my mom is the only person I've heard use this instead of dinner in the last decade)

Where I live ALL of the farmers call lunch "dinner" and dinner is "supper". Really threw me for a loop on several occasions when one would say "I'll bring a load of hay over after dinner" and the guy would roll in at 1:00, when I was thinking he would be here in the dark LOL. Oddly enough my husband, who is a born and bred city person before marrying me, has always called dinner "supper" as well. No idea why.

[Tamara in TN]

I learned that one when I read To Kill a Mockingbird. Is it an old expression, a Southern one, or both?

What about hassock?

a footstool too small to be sat upon...and ottoman could be used for spare sitting a hassock not so much...in my own mind they are either antebellum or victorian or queen anne in design used with wing chairs...but that is just my generalizations in my own mind ;>

[fooler]

Tonic (vs. "soda")
daft
dungarees
my grandfather referred to a cast iron frying pan as a spider

My family used chest of drawers to mean a tall one, and bureau to mean a short one.

Same in our family.

Does anyone know the definition of 'hough'? Used in a Mark Twain horse based short story.

[Foxtrot's]

Don't even THINK of putting soda in my gin and tonic.

We called an ottoman a pouf.

My dad would say it is five and twenty to two, or five and twenty past two, etc.

In a world increasingly multilingual, there are bound to be a lot of cross-over words, and many of these I see are of English origin, which I grew upwith.

Any German, French, Spanish lingo that is common parlance (taco does not count).

[hoopoe]

out of context "hough" might be a challenge

twain often wrote words in the vernacular, trying to illustrate a way of pronounching or mispronouncing a word(s)

right enough might elide to "hough"

[Crackerdog]

Tatterdemalion . . . how about virago?

In the 1942 dictionary, virago: a turbulent woman; vixen
In the 2009 dictionary, virago: a domineering, violent, or bad tempered woman
I think I like 'turbulent' better.

[Crackerdog]

Same in our family.

Does anyone know the definition of 'hough'? Used in a Mark Twain horse based short story.

In the old dictionary and the regular OED it says hough is a variant spelling of hock.

[Anne FS]

Same in our family.

Does anyone know the definition of 'hough'? Used in a Mark Twain horse based short story.

If you pronounce it with the Scots ending like Loch it'll make sense.

ETA: oops, missed Crackerdog's response.

[Anne FS]

Enjoy: http://listverse.com/2011/10/21/20-great-archaic-words/

[fooler]

out of context "hough" might be a challenge

twain often wrote words in the vernacular, trying to illustrate a way of pronounching or mispronouncing a word(s)

right enough might elide to "hough"

From Twain's "A Horse's Tale" in speaking of a bull fight:

"Yes, Sometimes a bull is timid, finding himself in so strange a place and he stands trembling, or tries to retreat. Then everybody despises him for his cowardice and wants him punished and made ridiculous: so they hough him from behind, and it is the funiest thing in the world to see him hobbling around on his severed legs: the whole vast house goes into hurricanes of laughter over it; I have laughed till the tears ran down my cheeks to see it. When he has furnished all the sport he can, he is not any longer useful and is killed".

My thought was the animal's hamstrings are severed.

[chemteach]

trollop and strumpet
My grandmother used to fuss at us if we were "going out dressed as a trollop." Translations: short shorts

[Anne FS]

From Twain's "A Horse's Tale" in speaking of a bull fight:

"so they hough him from behind, and it is the funiest thing in the world to see him hobbling around on his severed legs: the whole vast house goes into hurricanes of laughter over it; I have laughed till the tears ran down my cheeks to see it. When he has furnished all the sport he can, he is not any longer useful and is killed".

My thought was the animal's hamstrings are severed.

Yes, when used as a verb it means to hamstring.

[fooler]

Yes, when used as a verb it means to hamstring.

Thanks for the confirmation!

[Houndhill]

IIRC, cattywampus means "askew" or "crooked," not at diagonal corners.

Yes! That is the technical definition of cattywompass...I knew I didn't have it quite right, thank you!

[Houndhill]

In the 1942 dictionary, virago: a turbulent woman; vixen
In the 2009 dictionary, virago: a domineering, violent, or bad tempered woman
I think I like 'turbulent' better.

I like "vixen"!

[hastyreply]

Love those words! I think britches is vastly superior to trousers, and I still remember my grandmother using icebox. Bumberchute for umbrella is a fave of mine, also used by her.

Britches was a more common usage. (where common means vulgar or coarse, not of frequent occurrance ). It was indelicate for a lady to be said to wear britches, instead she wore trousers.

[Houndhill]

Favorite, forgotten words? Crepuscular, tatterdemalion, bonkers... I'll think of too many to list. I love the English language! I get the Shakespearian insult of the day on my homepage, and it's usually full of oldies but goodies.

I too love crepuscular! The wolf is a crepuscular carnivore, active at dawn and dusk.

[Houndhill]

Britches was a more common usage. (where common means vulgar or coarse, not of frequent occurrance ). It was indelicate for a lady to be said to wear britches, instead she wore trousers.

And now a modern usage for trousers is the abbreviation, "trou" as in, "to drop trou".

Do people still say that , or was that just in my college days?

[mvp]

I like "vixen"!

Vixen is technically a female fox, no?

[hastyreply]

And now a modern usage for trousers is the abbreviation, "trou" as in, "to drop trou".

Do people still say that , or was that just in my college days?

I've never heard that particular expression. Maybe it was a regional one. Sounds a bit common to me. LOL