Perfectly OT: Languishing words
- Bloomfield
- Posts: 8225
- Joined: Mon Oct 15, 2001 6:00 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Location: Location: Location:
Perfectly OT: Languishing words
The pride and joy of the English language are its many many words. But what good are they, if they are not used? There are too many words that languish in disuse and sullen idleness. I say: let's take the language back and start again to use these hapless words.
So, please, list any words you would like to hear or read more frequently.
I'll start, to break the ice, with just three:
Feckless
Example: I assure you, Nanohedron is not the feckless idiot he appears. On the contrary.
Vim
Example: Incensed and agitated by Dale's words, I had just laid out my argument in detail, and with a good deal of vim, when my flow of prose was checked by the sound of his snoring.
Limpid
Example: And then, with limpid words she traced the Muse's inspiration in her post.
So, please, list any words you would like to hear or read more frequently.
I'll start, to break the ice, with just three:
Feckless
Example: I assure you, Nanohedron is not the feckless idiot he appears. On the contrary.
Vim
Example: Incensed and agitated by Dale's words, I had just laid out my argument in detail, and with a good deal of vim, when my flow of prose was checked by the sound of his snoring.
Limpid
Example: And then, with limpid words she traced the Muse's inspiration in her post.
Last edited by Bloomfield on Thu Nov 20, 2003 12:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
/Bloomfield
- Blarney Pilgrim
- Posts: 82
- Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2001 6:00 pm
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 1
- Location: North Carolina
- markv
- Posts: 410
- Joined: Tue Jun 26, 2001 6:00 pm
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 1
- Location: Lincoln Nebraska
Quit your lollygagging you rapscallion you!
That fine pair brought to you by my dear departed grandmother Gladys, who used them nearly every time my brother and I were in her care.
Mark V.
That fine pair brought to you by my dear departed grandmother Gladys, who used them nearly every time my brother and I were in her care.
Mark V.
Fairy tales are more than true: not because
they tell us that dragons exist, but because
they tell us that dragons can be beaten.
G. K. Chesterton
they tell us that dragons exist, but because
they tell us that dragons can be beaten.
G. K. Chesterton
- herbivore12
- Posts: 1098
- Joined: Wed Apr 03, 2002 6:00 pm
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 1
- Location: California
Re: Perfectly OT: Languishing words
He's feckful? Or just fecked?Bloomfield wrote:
Feckless
Example: I assure you, Nanohedron is not the feckless idiot he appears. On the contrary.
- fancypiper
- Posts: 2162
- Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2003 1:08 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 12
- Location: Sparta NC
- Contact:
-
- Posts: 2258
- Joined: Thu Jul 26, 2001 6:00 pm
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 1
- Location: Nashville, TN
- Contact:
Due to the hebetudinous nature of this post, I must abnegate participation.
<i>The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit their views. Which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering.</i>
-
- Posts: 10300
- Joined: Tue Mar 12, 2002 6:00 pm
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 1
- Location: SF East Bay Area
I reckon so.
Most people don't realize that my continued and committed use of the word "reckon" is not homage to Jed Clampett but rather 18th century English. Reckon did not get transformed, though, like victuals (vittles) and vermin (varmints), so the confusion is understandable.
Its a very fine word, connected somehow to Norman French, no doubt (reconnaissance) and Sax. know (proving the k was once pronounced, btw) and all those Latin cog-words, and Scots "ken" (or however they spell it). Better than "guess" because it seems to imply more pre-determination or calculation, especially in the maritime context.
It was likely in Capt. James Cook vocabulary as well as Founding Fathers. .
Also, imho, Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is the most sustained, elegant use of the English language I have encountered. I loved reading those books, sometimes speaking out loud the sentences to hear the usage. I guess it was their Enlightenment values, knowledge of Latin and Greek, that drew them to certain words. I know they favored Norman/Latin over Anglo-Saxon choices.
Its a very fine word, connected somehow to Norman French, no doubt (reconnaissance) and Sax. know (proving the k was once pronounced, btw) and all those Latin cog-words, and Scots "ken" (or however they spell it). Better than "guess" because it seems to imply more pre-determination or calculation, especially in the maritime context.
It was likely in Capt. James Cook vocabulary as well as Founding Fathers. .
Also, imho, Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is the most sustained, elegant use of the English language I have encountered. I loved reading those books, sometimes speaking out loud the sentences to hear the usage. I guess it was their Enlightenment values, knowledge of Latin and Greek, that drew them to certain words. I know they favored Norman/Latin over Anglo-Saxon choices.
-
- Posts: 1303
- Joined: Tue Sep 11, 2001 6:00 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Tell us something.: I'm a New York native who gradually slid west and landed in the Phoenix area. I like riding on the back seat of a tandem bicycle. I like dogs and have three of them. I am a sometime actor and an all the time teacher, husband, and dad.
- Location: Surprise, AZ
- Walden
- Chiffmaster General
- Posts: 11030
- Joined: Thu May 09, 2002 6:00 pm
- antispam: No
- Location: Coal mining country in the Eastern Oklahoma hills.
- Contact:
Re: I reckon so.
Reckon is standard English.The Weekenders wrote:Most people don't realize that my continued and committed use of the word "reckon" is not homage to Jed Clampett but rather 18th century English. Reckon did not get transformed, though, like victuals (vittles) and vermin (varmints), so the confusion is understandable.
Reasonable person
Walden
Walden
- FJohnSharp
- Posts: 3050
- Joined: Thu May 30, 2002 6:00 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Tell us something.: I used to be a regular then I took up the bassoon. Bassoons don't have a lot of chiff. Not really, I have always been a drummer, and my C&F years were when I was a little tired of the drums. Now I'm back playing drums. I mist the C&F years, though.
- Location: Kent, Ohio
-
- Posts: 10300
- Joined: Tue Mar 12, 2002 6:00 pm
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 1
- Location: SF East Bay Area