Much ado over "fossil" words
Does this mean I'm an old fossil??
I'm aware that many of you may feel that Facebook is an utter waste of time, but sometimes my Facebook friends alert me to some interesting topics. Just this week, my "Grammar Girl" friend posted a link to a "DailyWritingTips" site that has me feeling like a dried-up old English teacher who can barely communicate with anyone under 65.
A writer by the name of Mark Nichol compiled the following list of "fossil words'" with this explanation: "Some of the most intriguing words in the English language are what linguists call fossil words, so named because they are artifacts from another era and survive only in isolated usage. Here is a list of some of our language's fossil words with definitions and the idiomatic phrases in which they appear:"
1. Ado: bother over unimportant details ("without further ado" or, more rarely, "much ado about nothing")
2. Amok:(or amuck): in an uncontrolled manner ("run amok")
3. Bandy: hit, pass, or toss around, or discuss lightly or employ off-handedly ("bandy about"); bowed ("bandy-legged")
4.Bated: restrained or deducted ("wait with bated breath")
5. Batten: lumber for flooring or for sealing or strengthening a joint or a flexible object such as a sail ("board and batten"); to provide or fasten with battens, or to fasten ("batten down the hatches")
6. beck: summons ("at (one's) beck and call")
7. Bygones: what has passed or is in the past ("let bygones be bygones")
8. Craw: stomach or crop ("sticks in (one's) craw")
9. Deserts: excellence or worth, or what is deserved or merited ("just deserts")
10. Dint: force or power ("by (sheer) dint of ")
11. Dudgeon: indignation ("high dudgeon")
12. Eke: accomplish or get with difficulty ("eke out")
13. Fettle: state of health or fitness ("in fine fettle")
14. Fro: away or back ("to and fro")
15. Hale: sound or very healthy ("hale and hearty")
16. Hither: near or adjacent, to this place ("hither and yon")
17. Immemorial: before memory or tradition ("time immemorial")
18. Jetsam: what is cast overboard from a ship ("flotsam and jetsam")--distinguished from flotsam, a word denoting what floats from a wreckage of a ship
19. Ken: range of knowledge, perception, or understanding, or view or range of vision (("beyond (one's) ken")
20. Kith: friends, neighbors, or relatives ("kith and ken")
21. Loggerhead: blockhead ("at loggerheads," meaning blocked, stalled, by stubbornness); also, a type of turtle
22. Mettle: quality, or vigor or strength of, temperament ("test (one's) mettle")
23. Neap: a weak tide ("neap tide")
24. Offing: the near future ("in the offing"); also, the deep ocean as seen from the shore
25. Petard: a container of explosives for breaching or breaking a barrier ("hoist by (one's) own petard")
26. Shebang: everything that is pertinent ("the whole shebang")
27. Shrift: confession ("short shrift," with the idea that a condemned person is given little time to confess sins)
28. Sleight: stratagem, dexterity ("sleight of hand")
29. Thither: more remote, or to that place ("hither and thither")
30. Turpitude: depravity ("moral turpitude")
31. Ulterior: beyond what is openly expressed ("ulterior motive") also, farther, or more distant, or what is on the farther side
32. Vim: robustness ("vim and vigor")
33. Wreak: bring about or cause ("wreak havoc")
34. Wrought: manufactured, ornamented, or shaped. or excited ("wrought iron")
35. Yore:the far past ("days of yore")
Reader Reaction to this post
As I read through this list, I found that I regularly use most of the words--except #23, "neap." Some, like "high dudgeon" are in my reading vocabulary (Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice"), or "dint" (Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar")
I always enjoy the reaction of other readers, and I found that I wasn't the only one who felt slightly alarmed that these common, everyday words had been labeled "fossils." One particularly enjoyable reader said, "'and survive only in isolated usage'? You mean by the literate?"
Other readers asked for the author's source, which he chose not to reveal.
I also enjoyed this comment: "Well! A pox upon those craven (and unnamed) linguists. I beg to differ...these words are most definitely in common usage by folk who appreciate a vocabulary of more than a few hundred nouns and assorted expletives."
I couldn't have said it better!
Well, I love any conversation about the English language--so I enjoyed this piece.
Comments
- -- Posted by TNMom2 on Wed, Sep 26, 2012, at 8:52 PM
- -- Posted by goat lady on Thu, Sep 27, 2012, at 6:21 AM
- -- Posted by wartz on Thu, Sep 27, 2012, at 11:21 PM
- -- Posted by goat lady on Tue, Oct 2, 2012, at 12:07 PM
- -- Posted by wartz on Thu, Oct 4, 2012, at 8:25 PM
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