Yogh.
There’s a difference between an archaism and a colloquialism, but the terms are priddiner.
Or so methinks…
[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.
[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.
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!
Perhaps, the next time you spot such an error, you could Pit the miscreant in one of the other fora.
Regards,
Shodan
[QUOTE=Bridget Burke]
Huzzah!
I’m not the only datum/data perfectionist.
[/QUOTE]
So, Bridget Burke, how you doin’?
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.
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.
[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?
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.
[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
[/QUOTE]
That’s wonderful - thank you! I didn’t even stop to think an there was something like this out there, anon.
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”)
My daughter finds much mirth in my use of the word ‘indeed’.
**cad
rake
fish wife
fish monger
codswallop
behoove
hie thee
hither and yon
Archaic Word Pron
**Today’s Archaic Word of the Day: **Invaginate
[QUOTE=Shirley Ujest**Today’s Archaic Word of the Day: **[Invaginate]
(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?
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’.
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.)