Words going out of fashion

@wolfgang59 said
Inspired by Kev's oblong ....
what words do you like that are disappearing from usage?

copacetic

I think this thread might be copacetic.

@wolfe63 said
copacetic

I think this thread might be copacetic.

Wow!
That was way off the radar! ... never heard of it.

THANK YOU

@wolfe63 said
copacetic

I think this thread might be copacetic.

Think I have mentioned before, but I miss the regular use of 'discombobulate'.

At work we have a list of client names and a column that used to be called 'additional notes'. Quite some time back I altered the title to 'additional notes and discombobulations'. (Nobody seems to have noticed, but makes me chuckle every time I see it).

I also once took the minutes of a team meeting (we later email out) to which the director of services attended. Aware that nobody even reads the notes, I wrote that the director appeared discombobulated. He messaged me shortly afterwards and thankfully saw the funny side.

@ghost-of-a-duke said
Think I have mentioned before, but I miss the regular use of 'discombobulate'.

It's a lovely word which I have increasingly heard
on comedy shows .(eg on 8 of 10 cats Countdown)

It's also perfect for world politics!

@wolfgang59 said
Inspired by Kev's oblong ....
what words do you like that are disappearing from usage?

American Regional English Dictionaries are seen in the office of editor Joan Houston Hall on March 3, 2009, in Madison, Wis. The Dictionary of American Regional English founded by Cassidy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is nearing completion of its final volume of text covering S to Z. A new federal grant will help the volume get published next year and allow the dictionary that linguists consider a national treasure to prepare to go online. (AP Photo/Carrie Antlfinger)AP PHOTO/CARRIE ANTLFINGER
Going, going, gone.
SONSY
30 words and phrases that will soon disappear from American English
By Thu-Huong HaSeptember 26, 2016
American English is rich with idiom and slang. But as new words enter the lexicon, many old expressions fall into disuse.

Earlier this month the Dictionary of American Regional English, a project to capture the ebb and flow of the country’s regional vocabulary, released a list of 50 “endangered” words and phrases to try and keep them in use.

Harvard University Press published the first volume of the dictionary in 1985, based primarily off nearly 3,000 interviews conducted around the country between 1965 to 1970.


The list of 50 selected from the six print volumes of the dictionary represents the phrases with very few recent quotations. ”I’ve had responses from people who say they still use some of these words, but they are all people over 60 now, and I doubt that their children or grandchildren use (or even recognize) the words,” says Joan Hall, the dictionary’s former chief editor.

See a selection of 30 of the words from our list below. Or get up on your beanwater and read all 50.

New England and the northeast
Daddock: rotten wood, a rotten log

Dish wiper: a dish towel

Dozy (of wood): decaying (especially Maine)

Dropped egg: a poached egg

Barn burner: a wooden match that can be struck on any surface (Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, Maryland)


To bag school: to play hooky (Pennsylvania, New Jersey)

Be on one’s beanwater: to be in high spirits, feel frisky

Emptins: homemade yeast used as starter (upstate New York)

Pot cheese: cottage cheese (New York, New Jersey, northern Pennsylvania, Connecticut)

Fogo: An offensive smell

I vum: I swear, I declare

Nasty-neat: overly tidy

Spin street yarn: to gossip


Tacker: a child, especially a little boy (Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania)

Southwest, Gulf coast, southern Appalachians
Bat hide: a dollar bill (southwest)

Racket store: a variety store (especially Texas)

Cup towel: a dish towel (especially Texas)

Ear screw: an earring

Fleech: to coax, wheedle, flatter

Popskull: cheap or illegal whiskey (southern Appalachians)

Sewing needle: a dragonfly (especially Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Massachusetts)

Mid-Atlantic
Trash mover: a heavy rain

Shat: a pine needle (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia)

Midland
Work brittle: eager to work (especially Indiana)

Frog strangler: a heavy rain

Scattered
Zephyr: a light scarf

Spouty (of ground): soggy, spongy

Sonsy: cute, charming, lively

Cuddy: a small room, closet, or cupboard

Tumbleset: a somersault (southeast, Gulf states, northeast)

@very-rusty said
American Regional English Dictionaries

You have a way with words ...

@wolfgang59 said
You have a way with words ...

Not at all, copy and paste! 😉

Save a lot of typing! 😉

-VR

@very-rusty said
Not at all, copy and paste! 😉

Save a lot of typing! 😉

-VR

And a lot of thought.

@wolfgang59 said
And a lot of thought.

I have to save that for my chess, really! 😉

-VR

@wolfgang59 said
You have a way with words ...

...Other peoples.

@great-big-stees said
I always liked the word "flummoxed", which is a state I often find myself in...lately.

Yes, I love flummoxed too!

"He appeared flummoxed and somewhat discombobulated," is perhaps the perfect sentence.

@ghost-of-a-duke said
Yes, I love flummoxed too!

"He appeared flummoxed and somewhat discombobulated," is perhaps the perfect sentence.

The way stees said it was ok as it was....Try coming up with something of your own! 😛

After all you don't like other people using others words...so practice what you preach or at least try!!! 😉

-VR