There is a movement at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, which I once visited, to “bring a collection of old school words back into the modern-day vernacular.” They are:
Caterwaul – A shrill howling or wailing noise.
Concinnity – The skillful and harmonious arrangement or fitting together of the different parts of something.
Flapdoodle – Nonsense.
Knavery – A roguish or mischievous act.
Melange – A mixture of different things.
Obambulate – To walk about.
Opsimath – A person who begins to learn or study only late in life.
Philistine – A person who is hostile or indifferent to culture and the arts, or who has no understanding of them.
Rapscallion – A mischievous person.
Subtopia – Monotonous urban sprawl of standardized buildings.
Caterwaul and philistine I use as often as possible, myself.
Arthur asked: “But who’s championing the case of the words we should lose?”
Why, Lake Superior State University, ALSO in Michigan, is! LSSU put out its 40th Annual List of words to be banished, among them “bae,” “cra-cra”, “curated,” ”skill set,” ”takeaway”, and “polar vortex.” The only one that really makes me crazy is cra-cra, meaning crazy, and like terms that are no shorter than the original word, and sound foolish.
I do agree with the complaint about curate: “It used to have a special significance reserved mainly for fine art and museums. Now everything is curated. Monthly food and clothing subscription boxes claim to be finely ‘curated.'”
More phraseology
7 Lost American Slang Words.
The Daughter found it humorous that “monosyllabic” has five syllables. There’s one thing which we all — regardless of language — may have in common. One syllable, that is.
Flammable Versus Inflammable – What Is the Difference?
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Arthur turned me on to the Anglophenia posts:
How To Speak British
How To Insult Like the British
Untying the Not describes the “Wicked Bible.”
15 unique illnesses you can only come down with in German
I’ve used caterwaul and melange and philistine myself. (once or twice I’ve had students complain in evaluations that I “use hard words they don’t know.” I….kind of forget. I have a pretty big vocabulary and forget that some words I like aren’t common any more).
And I agree on the watering-down of “curated,” it’s become a word like “artisanal” that has lost its meaning and is almost used in a “let’s advertise this so the hipsters might like it” way.
Another word I loathe is “monetize.” EVERYTHING has to be “monetized” now. Both the ugly word and the idea behind it, that everything is for sale and therefore everything must be loaded up with ads or whatever so it “pays its way.” I have a vision of some day having to get up at the start of class and say, “This lecture has been brought to you by Fisher Scientific. Buy Fisher!”
(In general, I dislike making verbs out of nouns).
The word shortenings that really bugged me were “‘za” (common when I was in college, it meant “pizza”) and “‘rents” (also common in my college, it was short for “parents” and I think it bugged me because of the implication – probably false – that I got that it was disrespectful)
Though I will confess a certain fondness for cra-cra, at least used somewhat ironically. (My inner 14-year-old girl is pretty strong these days.) When something’s not just “crazy,” it’s “cra-cra.” It’s especially funny (or so I think) when I use “cra-cra” to describe the latest administrative folly to one of my colleagues. (Then again, I’m easily amused)
Oh, I’m NOT fond of “artisanal” at all. Or “monetize,” for reasons you state, fillyjonk.
There are so many new words out there – great to revisit the old words.
Denise ABC Team
This is an interesting post, Roger! It shows that languages are constantly changing and sometimes our vocabulary is enriched by new words under the influence of new inventions or by newcomers in our countries. The Dutch learned a lot of new words from the former inhabitants of the colonies like Indonesia. We taught the Dutch who had lived here all their lives many names for Indonesian food for instance.Our Jewish countrymen enriched the language by adding Jewish expressions.The North Americans must have learned a lot of Mexican or other Latin American words, which the Britains don’t understand.
Well we can go on and on…..
I don’t mind learning words from different cultures but I do hate the wonderful English language being spoiled by laziness, sadly, I’m almost afraid to say, that a lot of American slang words and phrases have crept into our language….
For instance, when being greeted by a person in a local restaurant… Hi you guys, how’s it goin’?
.
No… not for me, the greeting should be,
Hello, how are you and so on.
I know I may sound rather pedantic but the real English language is a wonderful language and should not be distorted by lazy people who cannot be bothered to use it correctly …. sorry Roger.. a bit of a rant xxx
Best wishes,
Di.
ABCW team.
For all the new words, we lose some old ones. I’m not sure the trade off is a good one. Interesting posts as always.
Love rapscallion! I once called a car salesman an uncircumcised Philistine!
Yes, language is movement in time!
I’ve used melange once, I think!
My ABC WEDNESDAY
I am reminded of “mittelschmerz,” I think I spelled it right (couldn’t open the article link on German illnesses), which is that weird little cramp women get when the egg is trying to squeeeeeeze through the Fallopian tube. We used to call them “tube farts,” LOL. Yeah, TMI for sure…
I love the fluidity of English; the problem here is that some words get used so much the meaning is trivialized. Such is the case with “artisanal,” as others have noted. “Melange” is a common word in our house, because I fell in love with the word years ago. There is an onomatopoeic quality to that word…
I make up stuff all the time, too! But you knew that, right? Amy
I figure if McDonald’s can claim a menu item to be artisanal, the word clearly has no meaning anymore.
And I have a recurring daydream of Gil Scott-Heron back among us, declaiming: “The revolution will not be monetized.”
(Hmmm. I may have just given away a post title.)
It took me several weeks to decipher “bae.”
It amazes me how language evolves with time. Most of these words are new to me.
Thanks for this learning experience!
happy ABCW!
Lots of words I don’t know, but the German words I know and it’s true very difficult to translate !
I’m really out of the loop. I had no idea “curate” is being used that way or that some people are going around say cra-cra. Just gag me with a spoon.
Great post as always, you always make me think…Rapscallion is a word I’ve used. I enjoy my phone app that features a word of the day from Dictionary.com. I am woefully behind on my vocabulary♪
I think that this is an actual item in every country…. here in The Netherlands to many people are concerned with the foreign influences on the Dutch language wich makes it more easier to ‘forget’ the ‘old’ words wich say so much
It’s interesting, isn’t it – this evolution of language? from your list I love flapdoodle. Must remember to use it.
I was familiar with melange and philistine. However, my familiarity with the latter word was in regards with the people of Philistia, which were enemies of the Israelites in Biblical times. Therefore, the meaning you are referring to could be considered an ancient racist word. LOL! Anyway, I find languages fascinating as well.