Words We Don't Use

Rowan · Post by **Rowan** » Wed February 22nd, 2012, 6:31 pm

garle - To mar butter in the making by handling in summer with hot hands. This turns it to a curd-like substance, with spots and streaks of paler colour, instead of the uniformly smooth consistency and golden hue which it ought to have. Very nice dairy-women use a piece of thin, flat wood instead of the hand. But this requires greater care and more time, so the butter is garled by being made in too much haste. It may come from Anglo-Saxon geare, exepdite. ~ Rev. Robert Forby's Vocabulary of East Anglia, 1830

alamagtig - A common expletive, from Dutch almachtig, almighty. Alamatjes and alamopsticks are forms of the word employed by those who have scruples about using the word alamagtic, and salve their consciences by those variations. ~ Charles Pettman's Africanderisms: A Glossary of South African Colloquial Words and Phrases, 1913

SGM · Post by **SGM** » Wed February 22nd, 2012, 9:14 pm

[quote=""Madeleine""]We still have syllabub but it sounds a bit more appetising now! A traditional English dessert made with sherry or white wine, whipped cream and sugar and sometimes infused with lemon.[/quote]

I read ages ago that syllabub was still common over here until the new-fangled french fashion of yoghurt took over.

I don't think dolt is that uncommon still. I seem to hear it frequently and se'enight has been coming up in stuff I have been reading since childhood. I wonder if the French have a word for it, or if they use "le se'enight".

However, I always liked the word bootless. I think I came across it first in Dickens, probably Pickwick Papers and very shortly after (as these things happen) in Shakespeare. I believe it means stupid or silly.

The expression "our" [sister's, brother's etc etc] is still very much an expression used in Yorkshire and quite possibly other parts of the north. My mum and dad used it but they moved down south a long long time ago so I was surprised to have friends from Yorkshire when I was at college who still used it.

It took me years as a kid to realise that we were about the only family around who "mashed" our tea -- a very Yorkshire expression -- and southerners didn't know what I was talking about. I'm not sure if this term is still used though.

Rowan · Post by **Rowan** » Thu February 23rd, 2012, 2:29 pm

backwarding - A change from excessive joy ... to mourning, like that for a child dying after the rejoicings on its being christened. I told my old gardener, as I was returning from a funeral, that the last time I had driven to the same church was on the occasion of a gay wedding. "Ah," he said, "there is al[way]s a bacarding." ~ Edgerton Leigh's Glossary of the Dialect of Cheshire, 1877

LoveHistory · Post by **LoveHistory** » Fri February 24th, 2012, 12:21 am

Not the definition I would have expected for the term backwarding. I can think of a few others that would work.

Rowan · Post by **Rowan** » Fri February 24th, 2012, 2:26 pm

bachelor's fare - Bread, cheese and kisses. ~ Albert Hyamson's Dictionary of English Phrases, 1922

DianeL · Post by **DianeL** » Sun February 26th, 2012, 3:47 pm

I could live on that!

Does this menu translate for spinsters as well?

Madeleine · Post by **Madeleine** » Sun February 26th, 2012, 8:45 pm

[quote=""Rowan""]bachelor's fare - Bread, cheese and kisses. ~ Albert Hyamson's Dictionary of English Phrases, 1922[/quote]

Sounds good to me!

Rowan · Post by **Rowan** » Mon February 27th, 2012, 3:43 pm

celibataire - A bachelor. ~ T. Lewis Davies's Supplementary English Glossary, 1881

One who is vowed to celebacy. From French célibat[/I, celibate. ~ Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1893

Celibaterian, a person who is unmarried. ~ John Ogilvie's Comprehensive English Dictionary, 1865

power of the keys - Power of "binding and loosing" - that is, of excluding from or admitting into Paradise - claimed by the Pope in his character of St. Peter's successor, grounded on Mathew, 16:19 ["And I will give unto the the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thous shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven"]. The power or authority to administer the discipline of the Church, and to communicate or withhold its privileges. ~ Rev. James Stormonth's Dictionary of the English Language, 1884

bevgray · Post by **bevgray** » Mon February 27th, 2012, 5:14 pm

celibataire - I actually heard that used once. Caesar Romero, in the role of a French governor of a Polynesian Island used the term in the film DONOVAN'S REEF. Never heard it before or since.

SGM · Post by **SGM** » Mon February 27th, 2012, 7:39 pm

[quote=""Rowan""]celibataire - A bachelor. ~ T. Lewis Davies's Supplementary English Glossary, 1881

One who is vowed to celebacy. From French célibat[/I, celibate. ~ Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1893

Celibaterian, a person who is unmarried. ~ John Ogilvie's Comprehensive English Dictionary, 1865

power of the keys - Power of "binding and loosing" - that is, of excluding from or admitting into Paradise - claimed by the Pope in his character of St. Peter's successor, grounded on Mathew, 16:19 ["And I will give unto the the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thous shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven"]. The power or authority to administer the discipline of the Church, and to communicate or withhold its privileges. ~ Rev. James Stormonth's Dictionary of the English Language, 1884[/quote]

i read a novel by A J Cronin as a kid called The Keys of the Kingdom which I think was based on this very idea. However, it is so very long ago that I read it that I really can remember very little about it.