Welcome to the Historical Fiction Online forums: a friendly place to discuss, review and discover historical fiction.
If this is your first visit, please be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above.
You will have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed.
To start viewing posts, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
If this is your first visit, please be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above.
You will have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed.
To start viewing posts, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
Words We Don't Use
- LoveHistory
- Bibliomaniac
- Posts: 3751
- Joined: September 2008
- Location: Wisconsin, USA
- Contact:
- LoveHistory
- Bibliomaniac
- Posts: 3751
- Joined: September 2008
- Location: Wisconsin, USA
- Contact:
- LoveHistory
- Bibliomaniac
- Posts: 3751
- Joined: September 2008
- Location: Wisconsin, USA
- Contact:
- DianeL
- Bibliophile
- Posts: 1029
- Joined: May 2011
- Location: Midatlantic east coast, United States
- Contact:
I've been acquainted with brown study most of my life, but don't recall ever seeing it rendered as a single word.
Bleezed is a new one - I've always liked squiffed and spifflicated for this state, but bleezed is nice!
Bleezed is a new one - I've always liked squiffed and spifflicated for this state, but bleezed is nice!
"To be the queen, she agreed to be the widow!"
***
The pre-modern world was willing to attribute charisma to women well before it was willing to attribute sustained rationality to them.
---Medieval Kingship, Henry A. Myers
***
http://dianelmajor.blogspot.com/
I'm a Twit: @DianeLMajor
***
The pre-modern world was willing to attribute charisma to women well before it was willing to attribute sustained rationality to them.
---Medieval Kingship, Henry A. Myers
***
http://dianelmajor.blogspot.com/
I'm a Twit: @DianeLMajor
- Rowan
- Bibliophile
- Posts: 1462
- Joined: August 2008
- Interest in HF: I love history, but it's boring in school. Historical fiction brings it alive for me.
- Preferred HF: Iron-Age Britain, Roman Britain, Medieval Britain
- Location: New Orleans
- Contact:
Cornish hug - The Cornish men were famous wrestlers, and tried to throttle their antagonists with a particular lock called the Cornish hug. ~ Henry Reddall's Fact, Fancy, and Fable, 1889
Figuratively, a treacherous "throw," or injury, done by a pretended friend. ~ Robert Hunter's Encyclopaedic Dictionary, 1895
squareman - A carpenter, stone-cutter, or other workman who regularly uses a square for adjusting or testing his work; [late 1700s-1800s] ~ Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1919
encrampish - To cramp, hamper; after words like impoverish. ~ Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1901
boutefeu - Literally "to set fire." An incendiary, firebrand, agitator; from French. ~ C. A. M. Fennell's Stanford Dictionary of Anglicised Words and Phrases, 1892
swacker - Something huge; a bulky and robust person. Figuratively, a great lie. ~ Rev. Robert Forby's Vocabulary of East Anglia, 1830
cold coffee - Misfortune; sometimes varied to "cold gruel." Sea [slang]. ~ John Hotten's Slang Dictionary, 1887
A hoax, a trumpery affair; Oxford University. . . An unpleasant return or snub for a proffered kindness. ~ John Farmer's Slang and Its Analogues, 1891
mought - This old [past tense] of "may," now obsolete in England, has been retained in the South, and is very common in all parts of the Union. Until of late years, its use was mainly confined to . . . people in the interior of the New England states. Latterly, however, a spirit of change appears to have revived the popularity of this form. In North Carolina, "perhaps" is almost invariably rendered "it mought be." ~ John Farmer's Americanisms Old and New, 1889
Frequently heard in the South, where the negroes use it almost exclusively. Derived from the ancient verb mowe - the ancestor of may and corresponding to the German mochte - it was once correct. ~ M. Schele de Vere's Americanisms, 1872
byblow - An illegitimate child. ~ John Hotten's Slang Dictionary, 1887
nose-swelling - To make a person's nose swell, to make him jealous of a rival; [found in John Ray's 1678 collection of proverbs]. ~ James Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, 1855
To offer or pretend to do kindnesses to one, and then pass him by and do it to another. ~ Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1908
hebetude - Dullness; bluntness; obtuseness; want of discernment. Hebetate, to dull, to blunt; to stupify. "The eye is hebetated." ~ Daniel Fenning's Royal English Dictionary, 1775
Hebetudinous, inclined to hebetude. Hence hebetudinosity, dullness, obtuseness. Hebetize, to make dull. [From] hebete, dull, stupid, obtuse. Adapted from Latin hebes, hebet, blunt, dull. ~ Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1901
livercolour - Dark red. ~ Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language, 1755
leatherdick - A leathern pinafore such as is used by shoemakers. The acquisition of one used to be a great object of ambition with Almondbury lads. They regarded it as a kind of toga virilis. ~ Alfred Easther's Dialect of Almondbury and Huddersfield, 1883
caboodle - A noisy, rowdy place or crowd. ~ John Wilkinson's Leed's Dialect Glossary and Lore, 1924
The whole caboodle, the whole lot; supposed to be a corruption of the phrase kit and caboodle. ~ Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1893
Figuratively, a treacherous "throw," or injury, done by a pretended friend. ~ Robert Hunter's Encyclopaedic Dictionary, 1895
squareman - A carpenter, stone-cutter, or other workman who regularly uses a square for adjusting or testing his work; [late 1700s-1800s] ~ Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1919
encrampish - To cramp, hamper; after words like impoverish. ~ Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1901
boutefeu - Literally "to set fire." An incendiary, firebrand, agitator; from French. ~ C. A. M. Fennell's Stanford Dictionary of Anglicised Words and Phrases, 1892
swacker - Something huge; a bulky and robust person. Figuratively, a great lie. ~ Rev. Robert Forby's Vocabulary of East Anglia, 1830
cold coffee - Misfortune; sometimes varied to "cold gruel." Sea [slang]. ~ John Hotten's Slang Dictionary, 1887
A hoax, a trumpery affair; Oxford University. . . An unpleasant return or snub for a proffered kindness. ~ John Farmer's Slang and Its Analogues, 1891
mought - This old [past tense] of "may," now obsolete in England, has been retained in the South, and is very common in all parts of the Union. Until of late years, its use was mainly confined to . . . people in the interior of the New England states. Latterly, however, a spirit of change appears to have revived the popularity of this form. In North Carolina, "perhaps" is almost invariably rendered "it mought be." ~ John Farmer's Americanisms Old and New, 1889
Frequently heard in the South, where the negroes use it almost exclusively. Derived from the ancient verb mowe - the ancestor of may and corresponding to the German mochte - it was once correct. ~ M. Schele de Vere's Americanisms, 1872
byblow - An illegitimate child. ~ John Hotten's Slang Dictionary, 1887
nose-swelling - To make a person's nose swell, to make him jealous of a rival; [found in John Ray's 1678 collection of proverbs]. ~ James Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, 1855
To offer or pretend to do kindnesses to one, and then pass him by and do it to another. ~ Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1908
hebetude - Dullness; bluntness; obtuseness; want of discernment. Hebetate, to dull, to blunt; to stupify. "The eye is hebetated." ~ Daniel Fenning's Royal English Dictionary, 1775
Hebetudinous, inclined to hebetude. Hence hebetudinosity, dullness, obtuseness. Hebetize, to make dull. [From] hebete, dull, stupid, obtuse. Adapted from Latin hebes, hebet, blunt, dull. ~ Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1901
livercolour - Dark red. ~ Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language, 1755
leatherdick - A leathern pinafore such as is used by shoemakers. The acquisition of one used to be a great object of ambition with Almondbury lads. They regarded it as a kind of toga virilis. ~ Alfred Easther's Dialect of Almondbury and Huddersfield, 1883
caboodle - A noisy, rowdy place or crowd. ~ John Wilkinson's Leed's Dialect Glossary and Lore, 1924
The whole caboodle, the whole lot; supposed to be a corruption of the phrase kit and caboodle. ~ Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1893