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.