Site. 20 Obsolete English Words that Should Make a Comeback | Matador Network - StumbleUpon. Photo: Katherine Hodgson If we all start using them, these words can be resurrected. DURING MY UNDERGRADUATE studies as a Linguistics major, one of the things that struck me most is the amazing fluidity of language.
New words are created; older words go out of style. Words can change meaning over time, vowel sounds shift, consonants are lost or added and one word becomes another. Living languages refuse to be static. The following words have sadly disappeared from modern English, but it’s easy to see how they could be incorporated into everyday conversation. Words are from Erin McKean’s two-volume series: Weird and Wonderful Words and Totally Weird and Wonderful Words. 1.
Verb trans. – “To confuse, jumble” – First of all this word is just fun to say in its various forms. 2. 3. Verb trans. – “To scrape together; to gather together from various sources” – I’m sure this wasn’t the original meaning of the word, but when I read the definition I immediately thought of copy-pasting. 4. 5. 6. 7. 25 Everyday Things You Never Knew Had Names: Pics, Videos, Links, News. Another 25 Words you Don’t Know. Humans Following on from our first list of words you don’t know, we present another 25. Learn one a day and impress your friends! Words 25 – 21 25. 24. 23. 22. 21. Words 20 – 16 20. 19. 18. 17. 16. Words 15 – 11 15. 14. 13. 12. 11. Words 10 – 6 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. Words 5 – 1 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Jamie Frater Jamie is the founder of Listverse. 10 Curse Words You Don't Know | Words You Dont Know.
That’s one version of what happened at Waterloo and it’s a load of old cambronne, but the fact is that no-one seems to know the truth. After-battle commentary included both Cambronne saying “Merde!” And Cambronne saying “La garde meurt et ne se rend pas!” (The Guard dies and does not surrender!) Cambronne, who survived but was wounded, denied saying either of these things. 4. Norman Mailer tried to reintroduce the word in his novel The Naked and the Dead in 1948. By 1950 James Jones’ From Here to Eternity was published with the inclusion of 50 f-words. 5. Later on in life, when I saw Reservoir Dogs at the movies, I realized that Quentin Tarantino must have run into exactly the same group of guys. 6. I remember, for example, a relative of mine working on a boat engine. My mother, from whom I never heard a single swear word in my life, was inclined to simply shout “Damn! Personally, my habit is to make a lot of noise. Pages: 1 2 3 4. What concepts do not exist in the English language?
Carl Honoré (In Praise of Slow) says Canada's Baffin Island Inuit "use the same word—'uvatiarru'—to mean both 'in the distant past' and 'in the distant future.' Time, in such cultures, is always coming as well as going. " In an essay by Louise Edrich (Two Languages in Mind, but Just One in the Heart), she writes about learning Ojibwemownin and how "nouns are mainly desginated as alive or dead, animate or inanimate...once I began to think of stones as animate, I started to wonder whether I was picking up a stone or it was putting iteslf in my hand.
" I'm fascinated by language reflecting culture and vice versa. Any reference you've run across in passing or even know about as a multi-lingual MeFite is welcome. Moreover, if English isn't your primary language, what words/concepts made you take pause? Another 25 Words you Don’t Know. Find Similar or Opposite words at WordHippo.com. 10 Insulting Words You Should Know.
There is a crisis of insults on the Web. On one hand, the volume of flames is very high yet the quality is poor. Gone are the days of the razor-sharp wit of Oscar Wilde and Winston Churchill*, only to be replaced by a string of four letter words typed in ALL CAPS by n00bs (the latest of which is “FAIL”, itself a failure of coming up with a more scathing insult, if you think about it). *For example:"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go," says Oscar Wilde.George Bernard Shaw wrote to Winston Churchill, "I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend....if you have one. " And Churchill wrote back, "Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second......if there is one" Well, it’s hard to teach wit - but all of us can learn the next best thing: the approximation of it by obfuscation, i.e. using big, difficult, and obscure words. 1.
FRENCHIFY (v) Analysis: We have the English to thank for this word. 2. Definition: To spray with poo. 100 Most beautiful words in the English language* 20 Obsolete English Words that Should Make a Comeback | Matador Network - StumbleUpon. 10 Insulting Words You Don’t Know | Words You Dont Know. “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me.”
That’s what we used to chant as kids when we got into name calling contests in the school yard. Of course, it’s untrue and it’s disingenuous. It implies that the name callers are pursuing a stupid strategy when, in truth, the right insult is deeply wounding. Consider, for example, Jean Harlow. At dinner with Dame Margot Asquith, the wife of British prime minister Herbert Asquith, she kept pronouncing Dame Asquith’s name mar-got rather than mar-go, as it should be pronounced. Eventually Dame Asquith corrected her with the immortal words “No Jean, the T is silent, as in Harlow.” Being insulted brutally is bad enough, but being insulted famously is far worse.
Nevertheless, Jean Harlow escaped lightly when compared to Lord Castlereagh, a despised British politician, who was held responsible for the massacre at St. Posterity will ne’er survey A nobler scene than this. This four line poem distills the essence of insult. 1.