what words aren't used enough these days

theCzar

I heard the word progeny for the first time in ages yesterday, and it's a great word. e.g. "Sir, your progeny spilt iced cream on my rug, so I've had them removed and exterminated. the bill will be forwarded".

Any other good words that have fallen out of everyday use?

PurpleFistMixer

'Defenestrate'. It means to throw out a window. I'm not sure if it was ever used commonly, but it should be, damnit.
In my recollection, the only book I've seen it used in was 'The Stand' by Stephen King.

dudara

I've heard defenestration used in a movie or TV show. I'll post it if I think of the name, funnily enough it involved someone being thrown out of a window.

I like "ilk". As in "You and your ilk are not welcome around here"

Mitch Connor

Sibilant and sibilance are used enough in books (*waits to see if there are any David Gemmel fans...*)

disillusioned

In my opinion appropriate and whole words are not used enough!

Scarinae

I love the words 'oikofugic', 'bellicose' and 'platitudinous'. they mean 'the incredible desire to wander', 'aggressive and warlike' and 'extremely boring' respectively.

Ardent

Balderdash. Love that word.

IANOC

i find "please" and "thank you" are not used enough.........................


but seriously mine is FUSTIGATE.
which means to to be "humoursly predantic"

but the latin , which it came from means to "Cudgel or Beat" to death.

theCzar

IANOC wrote:

i find "please" and "thank you" are not used enough.........................

but seriously mine is FUSTIGATE.
which means to to be "humoursly predantic"

but the latin , which it came from means to "Cudgel or Beat" to death.

I was wondering how long it would be before somebody went all grannyish, hmmm is there a word to imply grannyishness!

I thought Fustigate was a made up word!

Fishie wrote:

I love the words 'oikofugic', 'bellicose' and 'platitudinous'. they mean 'the incredible desire to wander', 'aggressive and warlike' and 'extremely boring' respectively.

oikofugic is not on dictionary.com. looks more like japanese, are you sure it's a real word!?

deedee lepoopoo

'hum' or 'mead' are not used

ixoy

PurpleFistMixer wrote:

'Defenestrate'. It means to throw out a window. I'm not sure if it was ever used commonly, but it should be, damnit.
In my recollection, the only book I've seen it used in was 'The Stand' by Stephen King.

It was also used in a David Eddings book. One character used it to a joke effect - the other character (male) thought she meant to do something else to someone when he heard the word.

I'm currently reading 'The Baroque Cycle' and there's so many words there that we ought to hear more often. I've particularly grown partial to his use of "phant'sied" - an archaic form of "fancied" I believe.

Shabadu

theCzar wrote:

I heard the word progeny for the first time in ages yesterday, and it's a great word. e.g. "Sir, your progeny spilt iced cream on my rug, so I've had them removed and exterminated. the bill will be forwarded".

Any other good words that have fallen out of everyday use?

Actually, a shortened and rather crass version of 'progeny' is still in common usage today: sprog.

Vikings

indubitably, tbh

Shabadu

IANOC wrote:

"humoursly predantic"

If we're being pedantic, the correct spellings are "humorously pedantic".

PurpleFistMixer

ixoy wrote:

It was also used in a David Eddings book. One character used it to a joke effect - the other character (male) thought she meant to do something else to someone when he heard the word.

If that was when some character thought a defenestrator meant a murderer, then I remember that, faintly...

Dar

theCzar wrote:

I thought Fustigate was a made up word!

I don't see why. Fustigate is a perfectly cromulant word.

Sarky

"Gusto".

It's a great word, and it should be used for more, and with, well, gusto.

Shabadu

I quite like "trebuchet". And splendid.

PurpleFistMixer

Back when I played Age of Empires, it was all about trebuchets.
Such splendid weaponry. =D

Fenny

Rather. I know people still say it, but damnit, it should be said even more! Quite. Not used in the adjective sense, say, but just alone. Quite. Histrionics is fun to say, and so is fustigate.

0utshined

Good thread!

There's a lot of words that don't get anywhere near enough use. Some that come to mind are :

1) Discombobulated

Usage: The presenter was discombobulated by the jeering crowd.

2) Apoplexy

Usage : The sight of his daughter threw him into a state of apoplexy.

3) Obsequious

Usage : The obsequious reporter praised Jackson's taste.

4) Obstinate

Usage : "He's very intelligent, isn't he?" "Yes, but he's an obstinate fcuker"

Manach

A personal favoutire of mine, eviscerate.
Definity in need of increased usage, especially around the time of yearly job reviews.

IANOC

Shabadu wrote:

If we're being pedantic, the correct spellings are "humorously pedantic".

thank you

theCzar

Dar wrote:

I don't see why. Fustigate is a perfectly cromulant word.

simu

nidifugous

example

Fenster

Discombulated and exuberant, respectively.

Easily_Irritated

pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

LadyJ

The word "bun" just isn't used enough! People say "cake" for everthing! Well I for one am sick of it!

PurpleFistMixer

Ah, but a bun and a cake are different things. Buns are like fairy cakes, and cakes are... cakes.

LadyJ

I know! That's what I'm saying! But people rarely say "bun" even when it is a bun!
You pickin' up what I'm layin' down?

mike65

Treemenjeous (tremendous) was an everyday word 20-30 years ago now its almost dissapeared from day-to-day coversation in my experience.

Mike.

Capt'n Midnight

0utshined wrote:

There's a lot of words that don't get anywhere near enough use. Some that come to mind are :

1) Discombobulated

Usage: The presenter was discombobulated by the jeering crowd.

Ugggh I'm sick of hearing Gerry Ryan spouting stuff like that. Debases all those words.


Flutterby a word that has fallen out of use.

Franky Boy

People keep using the word cynical too much these days even when they have no idea of what it means and it's pissing me off!!!!
People should use the word Ostentatious!

Sapien

Shabadu wrote:

If we're being pedantic, the correct spellings are "humorously pedantic".

I think you'll find that when people use the word pedantic, they most often mean to say semantic.

I keep a pocket Molsekine notebook with me at all times, and the back page always bears the heading "Excellent Words", for me jot jot down any that occur to me. At present the list is as follows:

Marplot,
Vanward,
Heterodox,
Kairos,
Quincunx,
Apercu,
Dithyramb,
Eupheuism.

lacuna

I don't think "rather" is used enough these days.
After reading a lot of books written in the first half of the 19th century I've come to find that some of the ways people said things was far more eloquent than the way people say things today. It's as if we just don't take the time to use more interesting and descriptive words.

meditraitor

Please

tim3115

Lacuna, what books would you recommend from that period? Always fancied reading something from that time..

Fabulo

lacuna wrote:

I don't think "rather" is used enough these days.
After reading a lot of books written in the first half of the 19th century I've come to find that some of the ways people said things was far more eloquent than the way people say things today. It's as if we just don't take the time to use more interesting and descriptive words.

Or, rather, we've grown rather unaccustomed to all those niceties that were rather a mixed blessing anyway... Heh. Damn Victorianism (how's that for eloquence? ).

I think people should invent more words... My favourite invented word is "to jentaculate: to eat breakfast" from ientaculum, meaning breakfast. So much more musical than "to breakfast", heh.

GrumPy

nigreeletbops.

0utshined

lacuna wrote:

I don't think "rather" is used enough these days.
After reading a lot of books written in the first half of the 19th century I've come to find that some of the ways people said things was far more eloquent than the way people say things today. It's as if we just don't take the time to use more interesting and descriptive words.

I like that one.

Another one word I rather like is Fustilugs.

lacuna

tim3115 wrote:

Lacuna, what books would you recommend from that period? Always fancied reading something from that time..

There are so many genres within that period so it's hard to isolate a couple of books that characterise it.
In my post when referring to eloquent language I think I was talking about books by F. Scott Fitzgerald, ("The Great Gatsby" was afaik his most famous novel), also I'm rather a big fan of Hemingway, especially "Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises", Aldous Huxley too (though I'm usually more interested in his ideas than necessarily the way he puts them across).

You should take a look at Camus, Woolf, Sartre and Beckett perhaps. I've found them all very interesting and thought provoking.