Friday, October 03, 2008
Agrestic Living is Good
From a Times story: "The Times of London asked readers to vote for the word they most felt should be spared from oblivion and attracted more than 11,000 votes in a week. The word embrangle (to confuse or entangle) won with 1,434 votes, while fubsy (short and stout) came in a distant second." After describing some of the abandoned words that are still used in some places, they said, "Apparently, one man's linguistic recrement (waste, refuse) is another man's treasure."
Here for your pleasure is the list. I've highlighted my favorites:
- Abstergent: Cleansing
- Agrestic: Rural
- Apodeictic: Unquestionably true by virtue of demonstration
- Caducity: Perishableness
- Caliginosity: Dimness
- Compossible: Possible in coexistence with something else
- Embrangle: To confuse or entangle
- Exuviate: To shed
- Fatidical: Prophetic
- Fubsy: Squat
- Griseous: Somewhat grey
- Malison: A curse
- Mansuetude: Gentleness
- Muliebrity: The condition of being a woman
- Niddering: Cowardly
- Nitid: Bright
- Olid: Foul-smelling
- Oppugnant: Combative
- Periapt: An amulet
- Recrement: Refuse (waste - not as in to decline)
- Roborant: Tending to fortify
- Skirr: A whirring sound, as of the wings of birds in flight
- Vaticinate: Prophesy
- Vilipend: To treat with contempt
