From www.geol.umd.edu
Readers of my Crapulence and Forgotten English: the Words we Ought to Bring Back post will have realized that I like discovering obsolete words. Continuing my search for more words that should come back into our everyday life, I discovered ten great ones on Victims of Circum Solar. Enjoy!
Aeolist
A pompous person who pretends to have inspiration. I love this one! First of all, it comes from Greek, ‘aeolos’ being the ancient god of wind. Secondly, I can think of so many people that I could use this word for, that I could be accused of over-using it. Please, put it in your manuscripts, it’s lovely!
Satisdiction
Another favorite. It means to say all that is required. It’s probably the opposite of the blateroon mentioned earlier. It’s just so nice to have a word that really encompasses all that is to say.
Anagapesis
A loss of feeling for someone who was formerly loved. Again, it probably comes form the Greek word “agapi” meaning love. For all authors writing love stories or anyone having love tangles in their books, please use it, it’s so sweet and melancholic –although I do doubt whether any editor will recognize it!
Overmorrow
The day after tomorrow. Very useful and quite elegant to condense 4 words into one.
Yestreen
Last night, yesterday evening. Again, how useful and practical.
blateroon
A senseless babbler or boaster. There are so many people like that, I can see why we needed a word for them.
to apricate
To bask in the sun or to sun oneself. Always very easy to do in Greece, perhaps harder in cooler and less sunshiny countries. I apricate a lot in the summer although the heat can become quite discomforting. Still, a very useful word for Mediterranean and other sunny countries.
potvaliant
To become brave only as a result of being drunk. I think most people who have suffered from being potvaliant have immediately regretted it. Perhaps after becoming aeolists for a while.
bawcock
A fine fellow. Derives from the French “beau coq”. I had no idea that being a beautiful rooster meant so much to the French, but apparently it does. A neighbour has a rooster and a few chickens in his garden, so next time I see them I will look greet him appropriately. Of course, I still can’t see why a beautiful rooster is better than, say, a handsome lion or a good-looking elephant, but there you have it.
Spanghew
I saved the best for last: this fine word means to cause a frog or toad to fly in the air. Plenty of frog flinging going around at one point of human history, apparently…
So, there you go! Please don’t forget to let me know if you use any of these in your manuscripts! My only complaint is that my WordPress screen is now covered in wiggly red lines – much like your Word page will be. In fact, if Word could talk, I bet it would go, “Have you lost your mind? Are you drunk? What’s wrong with you? Are you just putting letters next to each other to see what happens? Or are you one of the proverbial thousand monkeys typing away in a vain effort to create Shakespeare’s works?” It would then roll its eyes and crash…
If you read the Aubrey – Maturin series of Historical Novels, by Patrick O’Brian about British Naval adventures during the Napoleonic era, they are choke-full (another soon to be forgotten word?)of arcane English words, including but not limited to blateroon. I had to google it which took me to your site!
A suggestion for your next 10 list is “popinjay” a favorite of author Raphael Sabatini, meaning a pompous dandy!
Thank you for that, Douglas, and thank Google, for getting you here 🙂
There are some crackers here! I particularly like ‘aeolist’ 🙂 SD
Lol – yeah, that’s a good one! 😀
I have lots of work to do but will postpone until overmorrow. Love reading your great posts.
Along with reblogging, that’s the highest praise I can imagine! Thank you! 🙂
My pleasure.
Reblogged this on Be My Guest and commented:
Try using some of these ten forgotten words in a sentence. Thank you Nicholas.
Spanghew sounds like a place name. Spanghew, twinned with Blinkton Mistit in Suffolk, perhaps.
I expect a giant frog statue, right off High Street! 😀
My favorites are overmorrow, yestreen, blateroon, and potvaliant! I particularly like potvaliant! I think I’ve seen that in Shakespeare.
A lovely selection! Overmorrow in particular baffles me; it exists in Greek (“methavrio”, lit. “after tomorrow”), and I’ve always wondered why not in English. Then, to find out that it did exist, and somehow was misplaced… Weird!
What fun! Thanks for the research and commentary, Nicholas!
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
Luscious!
Know many people who thrive off being potvaliant. That last one is definitely the best. Strange to see a word that’s so specific.
I know, right?
“That jerk ruined my dress by spanghewing all over me”.
Hmm… a disaster of Clintonesque proportions, if I may say so…
My mind keeps going to the 10 Plagues of Passover. Be more interesting if it was ‘Spanghewing’ instead of ‘Raining Frogs’.
ROFL – you’re killing me! 😀
Very funny! There are definitely a few I could use there. For example, I will definitely be apricating myself this afternoon…its going to be hottest day of the year in Ireland today, 28°C woohoo! I love the word potvaliant, that is going in my next manuscript for SURE, and blateroon, well, it sounds very Irish so may have to adopt that one too!
Brilliant, I’m so looking forward to reading that… 😀 Happy apricating!