And along the same line, how about “spooning” and “gentleman caller.”
Those terms give me the heebie-jeebies!
Hey! For that matter, how about “heebie-jeebies”?
And here’s another one: “Anyway.” Nobody says “anyway” anymore, instead they say “anyways.”
P.S.: Since we have so many wordly people here, does the question mark in the question above come before or after the close quote marks? For some reason I’m thinking that in a case such as this one the question mark come afterward.
The question mark comes after the quotes if the quoted portion is not a question.
Your usage is correct.
I occasionally use advertently. Then again, in the right context, I’ve used many of the words, sometimes pointedly or jokingly, with the exceptions of extirpate and cwm.
Those aren’t inkhorn words. Those are more like aaooga horn words – they make you sound like you’re stuck in 1925.
Piffle!
Merkin
I use “alas” all the time!
Thank you.
Beeves. The plural form of the species that consists of both cows and bulls.
Words I Think Should Be Used More Often:
Fortnight
Whence
Whilst
Automaton
Cruet
Unless you’re a gamer of course, obfuscate is one of the vampire disciplines from Vampire the Masquerade. I’ve learned a few words from there, such as vicissitude.
Those are two different words. The thing on a lawnmower primes the engine, hence it is a "prime"er, pronounced with a long “i”.
Looking up “primer” (as in the beginner schoolbook) in my Webster’s Third shows the pronunciation with the short “i” (prim’mer) as the standard and the pronunciation with the long “i” (pry’mer) as a “chiefly British” alternative.
Watch the Tennis Majors and you’ll hear ‘fortnight’ used frequently enough. I think each of them lasts that long.
I like ‘whilst’ and enjoy seeing it, usually by our British Dopers.
But then, there’s ‘nucular’.
It’s obscure grammatical terms that do it for me. “Catachresis”, “zeugma”, “syllepsis”, “chiasmus”… trouble is they’re so hard to work into the conversation. Here’s a chiasmus for you, straight from the English version of Haydn’s “Creation”:
The heavens are telling the glory of God; the wonder of his works displays the firmament.
Take a snapshot, it lasts longer.
But with the meaning “Do you want me to?” in questions we use it all the time: *Shall I have her call you? *
It’s not quite an English word, but I nominate temblor (earthquake). We all know what it means, because the talking heads on TV, as well as print journalists, invariably use it whenever we have an earthquake. But I’ve never heard anyone use it in conversation.
Nor, when one’s house is shaking apart, does anyone ever say “TEMBLOR!!” Get under a doorway!—at least, not if their native language is English.
If my name were Jeeves, I’d love to open a meat shop–Jeeves’ Beeves!
Mountebank.
“Oh that [Insert your President of choice] is a wily mountebank! We must send a letter to him by postal carrier POST HASTE!”
I would love it if more people spoke like old cartoon villians.
You may find the following old timey Homestarrunner cartoons amusing. Then again you might wish thay went out with Boss Tweed.