# Do you actively use archaic words? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 28, 2007, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-actively-use-archaic-words/409817 "2007-06-28T20:40:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2007, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-actively-use-archaic-words/409817/41 "2007-06-29T13:16:55Z")
Yogh. ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2007, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-actively-use-archaic-words/409817/42 "2007-06-29T13:35:19Z")
There’s a difference between an archaism and a colloquialism, but the terms are priddiner. Or so methinks… ---
**Author:** ![tbdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@tbdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tbdi)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2007, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-actively-use-archaic-words/409817/43 "2007-06-29T13:40:27Z")
[QUOTE=Daithi Lacha] **Amazon** , along those same lines – Growing up in eastern Long Island, NY, a lot of our influences are more New England than the state we belong to. My old man always used to say the word “ **passel** ,” as in _a passel of trouble_ or _a passel of worry_. It wasn’t until I moved down to Florida 6 years ago and started hanging around with real New Englanders that I realized Pop’s word was “ **parcel**.” [/QUOTE] In New England the words passel and parcel are quite distinct. They may be related historically but a ‘passel’ is a very vague, ever-changing quantity while a ‘parcel’ is a package. A New Englander would say a ‘passel of trouble’ like a Southerner might say a ‘heap of trouble’. A ‘parcel of trouble’ would be something from Ted Kaczinsky. [http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=passel](http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=passel) ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2007, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-actively-use-archaic-words/409817/44 "2007-06-29T13:44:03Z")
[QUOTE=Mr. Excellent] Huzzah! There are other people who say “groovy”! Also - this isn’t quite archaic, but I try really hard to use “datum” for the singular, and “data” for the plural. [/QUOTE] Huzzah! I’m not the only datum/data perfectionist. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2007, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-actively-use-archaic-words/409817/45 "2007-06-29T16:53:39Z")
That lad next door is a caution. He raced around the corner, and he ding nigh bowled me over. Before I could call him a guttersnipe, he was gone! ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2007, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-actively-use-archaic-words/409817/46 "2007-06-29T18:20:28Z")
> [@Bridget Burke](#): > > Huzzah! > > I’m not the only datum/data perfectionist. Perhaps, the next time you spot such an error, you could Pit the miscreant in one of the other fora. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2007, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-actively-use-archaic-words/409817/47 "2007-06-29T20:40:22Z")
[QUOTE=Bridget Burke] Huzzah! I’m not the only datum/data perfectionist. [/QUOTE] So, **Bridget Burke** , how _you_ doin’? ---
**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2007, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-actively-use-archaic-words/409817/48 "2007-06-30T07:19:30Z")
In our family, we use the expressions/words: "Good Lan’ child!’ and “She/he’s a panic!” and “Golly day” and “Icebox” and “Automobile” and “Turkish towel; tea towel” There’s more, but I can’t remember just now. Because I’m old. ---
**Author:** ![Freezair\_SilverEye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b2d939/32.png) [@Freezair\_SilverEye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freezair_SilverEye)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2007, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-actively-use-archaic-words/409817/49 "2007-06-30T10:45:05Z")
I love the word “pismire.” I’ll occasionally use it as an insult. I also tend to bandy about the terms “methinks” and “forsooth,” though usually in an obviously pretentious fashion. But I will commonly exclaim “Ye gods!” without even the faintest hint of facetiousness. (Even though I pronounce “ye” incorrectly.) I need to use the phrase “Great Caeser’s ghost!” somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2007, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-actively-use-archaic-words/409817/50 "2007-06-30T12:33:16Z")
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus] Don’t they still say shan’t in the UK? Or is it archaic there too? [/QUOTE] Yes, we still use it. In fact, I’m surprised at some of the words in this thread. “Amongst”, “quip” and “rife” are archaic? ---
**Author:** ![Freezair\_SilverEye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b2d939/32.png) [@Freezair\_SilverEye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freezair_SilverEye)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2007, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-actively-use-archaic-words/409817/51 "2007-06-30T12:44:57Z")
I just now realized another one; I love it so much I’m surprised I didn’t think of it before. “Gads.” Not as in “egads,” but as in a lot of something, such as: “Gads of birds all over the telephone poles!” It’s fun to say. ---
**Author:** ![Daithi\_Lacha](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daithi_lacha/32/5430_2.png) [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2007, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-actively-use-archaic-words/409817/52 "2007-06-30T14:30:44Z")
[QUOTE=tbdi] In New England the words passel and parcel are quite distinct. They may be related historically but a ‘passel’ is a very vague, ever-changing quantity while a ‘parcel’ is a package. A New Englander would say a ‘passel of trouble’ like a Southerner might say a ‘heap of trouble’. A ‘parcel of trouble’ would be something from Ted Kaczinsky. [http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=passel](http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=passel) [/QUOTE] That’s wonderful - thank you! I didn’t even stop to think an there was something like this out there, anon. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2007, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-actively-use-archaic-words/409817/53 "2007-06-30T14:48:17Z")
I will put Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility in the CD player into the car pretty regularly and listen to it on my way to work. Then I occationally discover I’m describing people as amicable or use other phrases that at that moment seem perfectly normal. (Right now its “To Kill a Mockingbird”) ---
**Author:** ![justpassingthrough](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bcef8e/32.png) [@justpassingthrough](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justpassingthrough)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2007, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-actively-use-archaic-words/409817/54 "2007-06-30T15:44:52Z")
My daughter finds much mirth in my use of the word ‘indeed’. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2007, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-actively-use-archaic-words/409817/55 "2007-06-30T18:36:49Z")
\*\*cad rake fish wife fish monger codswallop behoove hie thee hither and yon ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2007, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-actively-use-archaic-words/409817/56 "2007-06-30T18:41:57Z")
[Archaic Word Pron](http://www.extelligence.co.uk/dictionary/wordlist.htm?letter=a) \*\*Today’s Archaic Word of the Day: \*\*[Invaginate](http://www.extelligence.co.uk/dictionary/wordsearch.php?level=0) ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2007, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-actively-use-archaic-words/409817/57 "2007-06-30T18:46:17Z")
[antimacassar](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimacassar) and [anachronistic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anachronistic) ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2007, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-actively-use-archaic-words/409817/58 "2007-06-30T18:46:35Z")
[QUOTE=Shirley Ujest\*\*Today’s Archaic Word of the Day: \*\*[Invaginate] ([http://www.extelligence.co.uk/dictionary/wordsearch.php?level=0](http://www.extelligence.co.uk/dictionary/wordsearch.php?level=0)) [/QUOTE] So one ought to use invaginate one’s priapsus with a french letter before engaging in copulation? ---
**Author:** ![Khampelf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Khampelf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khampelf)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2007, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-actively-use-archaic-words/409817/59 "2007-06-30T21:05:10Z")
More quolloquial than archaic, but I’ve used the phrase “If I had my druthers, I’d…” I’m sure it’s a bastraction of ‘I would rather’. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2007, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-actively-use-archaic-words/409817/60 "2007-06-30T21:18:19Z")
Yes, “passel” is its own word. One can have a passel of greens _or_ a mess of them, even. (They both mean “a good quantity of greens.” Some people define “mess” to be enough \_\_\_\_ to feed one family, but I think they’re overthinking it.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-actively-use-archaic-words/409817.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-actively-use-archaic-words/409817.md?page=4)