Death and Taxes discovered from two sources — The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten, and the Obsolete Word of the Day blog — a list of words that are obsolete but should not be, including:
Snoutfair: A person with a handsome countenance …
Wonder-wench: A sweetheart …
Groak: To silently watch someone while they are eating, hoping to be invited to join them …
Spermologer: A picker-up of trivia, of current news, a gossip monger, what we would today call a columnist …
Englishable: That which may be rendered into English …
Resistentialism: The seemingly spiteful behavior shown by inanimate objects …
Bookwright: A writer of books; an author; a term of slight contempt …
Zafty: A person very easily imposed upon …
I’ve picked these eight words because it isn’t too hard to create a sentence using these words. For instance:
- My wonder-wench thinks I am a snoutfair. (No, that’s not a comment about bacon. I think.)
- I groak standing in front of a zafty I know.
- My car didn’t start today, another example of the resistentialism of things I own.
- I am a spermologer hoping to become a bookwright; each requires use of Englishable words.
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