[Urbane Guerrilla]

I'm often surprised at some lexicographers' and language historians' willingness to declare some usage or word "obsolete." I can recall from The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language a declaration that "merry" was pretty much gone except in a set phrase like "Merry Christmas." What the hell? I use some archaisms, but "merry" isn't remotely archaic, nor at all obsolete to anyone who read Tolkien, who wasn't necessarily archaic in his usages either.