York University rediscovers 30 lost English words

Brian G Turner

Fantasist & Futurist
Staff member
Supporter
Joined
Nov 23, 2002
Messages
26,417
Location
UK
Researchers at York University went through old English texts, compiling a list of words that have fallen out of use - and the media reporting would like to think might have a chance at revival:

Awhape your friends with these words ripe for revival


And the words are:

Ambodexter — One who takes bribes from both sides

Awhape — To amaze, stupefy with fear, confound utterly

Betrump — To deceive, cheat; to elude, slip from

Coney-catch — To swindle, cheat; to trick, dupe, deceive

Dowsabel — Applied generically to a sweetheart, ‘lady-love’

Ear-rent — The figurative cost to a person of listening to trivial or incessant talk

Fumish — Inclined to fume, hot-tempered, irascible, passionate

Hugge — To shudder, shrink, shiver, or shake with fear or cold

Hugger-mugger — Concealment, secrecy; in secret, secretly, clandestinely. Formerly in ordinary literary use, now archaic or vulgar

Losenger — A false flatterer, a lying rascal, a deceiver

Man-millinery — Suggestive of male vanity or pomposity

Merry-go-sorry — A mixture of joy and sorrow

Momist — A person who habitually finds fault; a harsh critic

Nickum — A cheating or dishonest person

Parget — To daub or plaster (the face or body) with powder or paint

Peacockize — To behave like a peacock; esp. to pose or strut ostentatiously

Percher — A person who aspires to a higher rank or status; an ambitious or self-assertive person

Quacksalver — A person who dishonestly claims knowledge of or skill in medicine; a pedlar of false cures

Rouker — A person who whispers or murmurs; one who spreads tales or rumours

Rouzy-bouzy — Boisterously drunk

Ruff — To swagger, bluster, domineer. To ruff it out / to brag or boast of a thing

Sillytonian — A silly or gullible person, esp. one considered as belonging to a notional sect of such people

Slug-a-bed — One who lies long in bed through laziness

Snout-fair — Having a fair countenance; fair-faced, comely, handsome

Stomaching — Full of malignity; given to cherish anger or resentment

Swerk — To be or become dark; in Old English often, to become gloomy, troubled, or sad

Teen — To vex, irritate, annoy, anger, enrage / To inflict suffering upon; to afflict, harass; harm

Tremblable — Causing dread or horror

Wasteheart — Used to express grief, pity disappointment or concern

Wlonk — Proud, haughty / Rich, splendid, fine, magnificent: in later use esp. as a conventional epithet in alliterative verse
 
Just looking at the list, I wonder if Nickum is where we get the word nick (steal) from?
Furthermore, I think it's safe to say that the American people have been betrumped:D
 
"Ambodexter" sounds related to "ambidextrous", with a similar meaning. Similarly with "Awhape" and "agape" - and others in that list.

I used to have an "obsolete word of the week" where I once worked. They were chosen randomly from a mailing list I was on that occasionally included obsolete words. Game colleagues and I would insert it into conversation at every opportunity during that week.
 
Some need revision.

Ambodexter: one who kills with either hand
Betrump: become president while being utterly unqualified
Coney-catch: a carnival game (peculiar to NYC)
Losenger: one who swallows a lozenge (var. sp.)
Momist: opposite of a Dadist; not to be confused with Dadaist. Or Mamaist.
Parget: to daub plaster on a target; medieval precursor to painting a target with a laser
Rouzy-bouzy: this cannot be improved upon
Slug-a-bed: testing at Mattress World
Swerk: opposite of twerk
Teen: also cannot be improved upon
Wlonk: alliteration? Srsly?
 
Coney is a rabbit btw

I love ear rent - that one I might take to using.

Slug a bed I'd heard around/maybe read, likewise hugger-mugger.

I have run into several of these in Georgette Heyer dialogue, in particular coney catcher and man milliner.
 
  • Like
Reactions: hej
Awesome words!

I am familiar with snoutfair. I think it persists in Icelandic, iirc.

I know (and have used) slug-a-bed and hugger-mugger, but I have a large vocabulary of obsolete and archaic words.

Ear-rent will be very useful to me.

I am too green a member to post the url, but a great resource for lost words is phrontistery (a place for thinking).

Thanks for sharing!
 
Incidentally, betrump may not be in use, but trump apparently is. Wikipedia has the following definitions,
(transitive) To get the better of, or finesse, a competitor.
(transitive, dated) To impose unfairly; to palm off.

I find man-millinery humorous, as it derives from millinery (/women's/ hats) -- so, man-"women's hats".

Quacksalver, though a great word, is in my lexicon. It's archaic, yes, but not lost. Another word for it is medicaster.

Awhape (confound) is a fantastic word -- which I did not know.

Thanks again for these excellent words. English is a trove of these gems, though I need be careful lest they verhoodle (awhape) my readers.
 
Trump - its a term from playing from playing the card game Bridge. Gives a suite of cards higher value than the others. So you can trump someone's ace (where the ace is a card from a suite that currently isn't trumps.)
 

Back
Top