Words we should bring back

A mini game: each round shows an old word and three meanings; pick the right one. Some of the words:

  • Apricity (n.): the warmth of the sun in winter. Recorded in a 1623 dictionary, then almost never used again.
  • Gloaming (n.): twilight, the fall of dusk. Still alive in Scottish speech and old songs.
  • Respair (n.): fresh hope; recovering from despair. Last seen in writing around the 1500s.
  • Curglaff (n.): the shock you feel when you first plunge into cold water. An old Scots word.
  • Snowbroth (n.): freshly melted snow. Shakespeare gives a cold-blooded man “snow-broth” for blood.
  • Mizzle (v.): to rain in very fine drops, somewhere between mist and drizzle. Still heard in the West Country.
  • Welkin (n.): the sky, the vault of heaven. From Old English wolcen, “cloud”.
  • Uhtceare (n.): lying awake before dawn, full of worry. Old English: uht, the hour before daybreak, and care.
  • Hurkle-durkle (v.): to lounge in bed long after it's time to get up. An old Scots word, overdue a comeback.
  • Groak (v.): to watch someone eat in silence, hoping they'll offer you some. Dogs never needed the word.
  • Ultracrepidarian (n.): someone who gives opinions beyond their knowledge. William Hazlitt used it in 1819.
  • Brabble (v.): to squabble noisily over trifles. Twelfth Night has a “private brabble” in it.