From my very impressionable age, I’ve always been fascinated by words—their sound, spelling, meaning, uses, history. That’s why I used most...
From my very impressionable age, I’ve always
been fascinated by words—their sound, spelling, meaning, uses, history. That’s
why I used most of my time in secondary school I memorizing all the
dictionaries in my school library. I continued the memorization of dictionary
into my university days. Learning about words has been my enduring passion. In
response to my article on outdated words in Nigerian English, a friend sent
this fascinating article about 20 words that have gone out of circulation in
the English language. It was written on November 8, 2010 by Heather Carreiro
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DURING
MY UNDERGRADUATE studies as a Linguistics major, one of the things that struck
me most is the amazing fluidity of language. New words are created; older words
go out of style. Words can change meaning over time, vowel sounds shift,
consonants are lost or added and one word becomes another. Living languages
refuse to be static.
The
following words have sadly disappeared from modern English, but it’s easy to
see how they could be incorporated into everyday conversation.
Words
are from Erin McKean’s two-volume series: Weird and Wonderful Words and Totally
Weird and Wonderful Words. Definitions have been quoted from the Oxford English
Dictionary.
1. Jargogle
Verb
trans. – “To confuse, jumble” – First of all this word is just fun to say in
its various forms. John Locke used the word in a 1692 publication, writing “I
fear, that the jumbling of those good and plausible Words in your Head..might a
little jargogle your Thoughts…” I’m planning to use it next time my husband
attempts to explain complicated Physics concepts to me for fun: “Seriously, I
don’t need you to further jargogle my brain.”
2. Deliciate
Verb
intr. – “To take one’s pleasure, enjoy oneself, revel, luxuriate” – Often I
feel the word “enjoy” just isn’t enough to describe an experience, and “revel”
tends to conjure up images of people dancing and spinning around in circles –
at least in my head. “Deliciate” would be a welcome addition to the modern English
vocabulary, as in “After dinner, we deliciated in chocolate cream pie.”
Read the rest of the article here.
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