The Cellar - Lost and forgotten words

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Lost and forgotten words

Saw this in the Guardian today and it made me smile. Mark Forsyth, author of The Etymologicon and The Horologicon sets out ten of his favourite lost and forgotten words:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/boo...-10-lost-words

Who doesn't love a good lost word eh?

here are a couple of my favourites from the list:

Quote:

1. Wamblecropt

... overcome with indigestion. Once upon a time, you might observe that your stomach was wambling a bit. If the wambles got so bad you couldn't move, you were wamblecropt. It's the most beautiful word in the English language to say aloud. Try it.

Quote:

4. Uhtcaere.

...is an Old English word that refers to anxiety experienced just before dawn. It describes that moment when you wake up too early and can't get back to sleep, no matter how tired you are, because you're worried about the day to come.

Quote:

5. Snollygoster

...is a 19th century American word for "a dishonest or corrupt politician". Or, to take an original definition from the editor of a Georgia newspaper: "a snollygoster is a fellow who wants office, regardless of party, platform or principles, and who, whenever he wins, gets there by the sheer force of monumental talknophical assumnacy". The only reason I can imagine such a delicious word would die out is that all politicians are now honest.

Check out the link for more. And I highly recommend the books :)

I would expect gynaecologists suffering from stress to experience uhtcaere.

6. Ultracrepidarian
Ultracrepidarianism is when you give your opinion on a topic about which you know nothing. What makes this word so useful is that nobody knows what it means. Tell someone they are ultracrepidarian and they'll probably consider it a compliment.

Seems like this one could be useful. Like for when I post in the politics forum.

Would you consider yourself an egregious person?

No. ...I thought egregoius meant badly mistaken. ... or when used to modify making an error. An egregious error.

Are you thinking of gregarious? Cuz, I'm that. According to ute, anyway.

Sorry, it was in a sketch from The League of Gentlemen.

In an Q&A session one character is obvious trying to best the other. Which he does, completely. Then gets walloped with a clipboard for his temerity.

LJ: I tried to use "ultracrepidarian" over in the Politics forum,
but it instantly transmutated into "ultracrepadakian". ;)

Fistmele - modern term is 'brace height' - it's the distance between the deepest part of the grip of a bow and the bowstring.

Alternatively, the width of the hand with thumb extended.

This could just as easily go in LJ's Need a new Euphemism thread for use as a noun to describe cunnilingus: Honey, I'd really like a ...

lickety-split