Mmm. I think she's posted this before...

[conuly]

I know I've seen it before, anyway.

Still, I think this is time for me to ressurrect my Plan To Take Over The World... I mean, to Change the English Language, One Word at a Time! (This plan is better, it has fewer majuscule letters.)

I'll wedge this into my New Year's Resolutions - I'll try to add one new (but really old or dialectical) word into my vocabulary, on a regular basis (not just knowing it and never using it, these have to be useful words which express concepts that are hard to otherwise say) every other week.

Starting, I believe, with hardel and handsmooth.

To help me with my endeavour - any of you have obscure, obsolete, foreign, or otherwise uncommon-in-English words you'd like to contribute to the cause?

Comments

[minkhollow]

I nominate 'swink' (optional E at the end). Middle English for 'work' - crops up in Chaucer. If memory serves it's both a noun and a verb.
Either way? Awesome word. XD

[conuly]

*stares*

Are you really me? Have you been reading my mind? Because I've been shoving "swink" at my family for the past several years.

[minkhollow]

Doubtful; I didn't know the word existed myself until February or so. But it's still awesome.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

the thing that always gets me about english and the predominance of sight over other senses is in examples like this:
sight: the sunlight fell through the trees
smell: waffles drifted through the air

nope, you have to say the smell/aroma, etc of waffles. otherwise people assume you're seeing it. completely sight-based. i can't think of a better way of doing it though.

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that's fair. I mean, the sunlight does go through the trees. You could just as easily say "the rain fell through the trees" or "the airplane crashed through the trees." And to me "the sunlight fell through the trees" implies not just sight but also touch. (Probably because I have cats who like to curl up in the warm patches.)

You can also say "the music drifted through the air," because sound (like light) is a wave that actually moves through the air. Or "the perfume wafted through the air."

So it's not because "people assume you're seeing it." It's because waffles don't fly. if you said "the waffles drifted through the air," the point I would understand was that you were on a spaceship—it's not relevant whether you saw them, heard them, or felt them. If you mean that you smelled them, then it's the smell that's drifting. If you mean you heard them (err, that doesn't work with waffles--how about Rice Krispies?) then it's the sound of the Rice Krispies that's drifting through the air. Now, if there were a hologram on a moving base, then you could have the image of whatever drifting through the air.

Maybe you were trying to make a different point, but I don't think the sunlight and waffles make the point you want to make. Because, as I said, sunlight goes through the trees, in a literal sense (well, in the most strictly literal sense it goes between the spaces in the branches/leaves/whatever). But waffles do not literally drift through the air. However, the smell does literally drift through the air.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

i see your point completely and that's about what i'm saying too. when you say waffles don't drift through the air, the smell does, that's the point that tyou have to say "the smell." even when it's something you know to be a nice smell. no one could even go there, if i was writing a story or poem i can't even really take creative liberty because it wouldn't make sense. all the words we have are based on the physical object itself doing the action, even if a smell is the primary feature of the object. like perfume. the point is the smell, but i still can't REALLY say that perfume floats around. well, i guess i can because that has come to mean the same as aroma or fragrance, another one of the identiifying smells words. ok, but "cologne drifted through the air" is not ok. i don't know if that made anymore sense. maybe this is one of those things that only bothers me in my head and doesn't make sense outloud.

[moggymania.livejournal.com]

"Destrier" for horse. :) Technically it's the kind of horse used for combat -- the term was originally French, but was also a part of English during the middle ages (iirc).

There's "moggy" for cat, though that's still used in parts of the UK and Australia.

Gleek -- the little involuntary spit that flies out of your salivary glands while your mouth is open.

"Woobie" is an obscure-in-the-USA term in English for a soft "security blanket" or other soft thing that little kids become attached to. I think.

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

Yep. My parents' dog has a woobie.

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

I've been giving "rueful smiles" for years.

[wodhaund.livejournal.com]

Defenestration is a fantasticly underused word. It surprises me, considering how many of us use computers on the second floors of buildings.

I use "mimsy" frequently, but I don't think it counts, since Mr. Carroll made it up.

[wodhaund.livejournal.com]

Edit: No, wait, I found this. (http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-mim1.htm) You might find it interesting.

[minkhollow]

I nominate 'swink' (optional E at the end). Middle English for 'work' - crops up in Chaucer. If memory serves it's both a noun and a verb.
Either way? Awesome word. XD

[conuly]

*stares*

Are you really me? Have you been reading my mind? Because I've been shoving "swink" at my family for the past several years.

[minkhollow]

Doubtful; I didn't know the word existed myself until February or so. But it's still awesome.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

the thing that always gets me about english and the predominance of sight over other senses is in examples like this:
sight: the sunlight fell through the trees
smell: waffles drifted through the air

nope, you have to say the smell/aroma, etc of waffles. otherwise people assume you're seeing it. completely sight-based. i can't think of a better way of doing it though.

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that's fair. I mean, the sunlight does go through the trees. You could just as easily say "the rain fell through the trees" or "the airplane crashed through the trees." And to me "the sunlight fell through the trees" implies not just sight but also touch. (Probably because I have cats who like to curl up in the warm patches.)

You can also say "the music drifted through the air," because sound (like light) is a wave that actually moves through the air. Or "the perfume wafted through the air."

So it's not because "people assume you're seeing it." It's because waffles don't fly. if you said "the waffles drifted through the air," the point I would understand was that you were on a spaceship—it's not relevant whether you saw them, heard them, or felt them. If you mean that you smelled them, then it's the smell that's drifting. If you mean you heard them (err, that doesn't work with waffles--how about Rice Krispies?) then it's the sound of the Rice Krispies that's drifting through the air. Now, if there were a hologram on a moving base, then you could have the image of whatever drifting through the air.

Maybe you were trying to make a different point, but I don't think the sunlight and waffles make the point you want to make. Because, as I said, sunlight goes through the trees, in a literal sense (well, in the most strictly literal sense it goes between the spaces in the branches/leaves/whatever). But waffles do not literally drift through the air. However, the smell does literally drift through the air.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

i see your point completely and that's about what i'm saying too. when you say waffles don't drift through the air, the smell does, that's the point that tyou have to say "the smell." even when it's something you know to be a nice smell. no one could even go there, if i was writing a story or poem i can't even really take creative liberty because it wouldn't make sense. all the words we have are based on the physical object itself doing the action, even if a smell is the primary feature of the object. like perfume. the point is the smell, but i still can't REALLY say that perfume floats around. well, i guess i can because that has come to mean the same as aroma or fragrance, another one of the identiifying smells words. ok, but "cologne drifted through the air" is not ok. i don't know if that made anymore sense. maybe this is one of those things that only bothers me in my head and doesn't make sense outloud.

[moggymania.livejournal.com]

"Destrier" for horse. :) Technically it's the kind of horse used for combat -- the term was originally French, but was also a part of English during the middle ages (iirc).

There's "moggy" for cat, though that's still used in parts of the UK and Australia.

Gleek -- the little involuntary spit that flies out of your salivary glands while your mouth is open.

"Woobie" is an obscure-in-the-USA term in English for a soft "security blanket" or other soft thing that little kids become attached to. I think.

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

Yep. My parents' dog has a woobie.

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

I've been giving "rueful smiles" for years.

[wodhaund.livejournal.com]

Defenestration is a fantasticly underused word. It surprises me, considering how many of us use computers on the second floors of buildings.

I use "mimsy" frequently, but I don't think it counts, since Mr. Carroll made it up.

[wodhaund.livejournal.com]

Edit: No, wait, I found this. (http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-mim1.htm) You might find it interesting.