“Teeth extracted by the latest Methodists.”
The humidity is thick enough to cut. The sun is a visitor staying only a short while then disappearing behind a cloud before it comes back, more to tantalize us than to stay. The weatherman says rain, even another thunder shower.
Yesterday I stayed inside and did all those chores I’ve been avoiding. I washed clothes, polished furniture and cleaned the refrigerator. That last chore was easy. My refrigerator is as empty as it’s ever been. I see grocery shopping in my near future.
Sometimes I wonder how I know weird words. My guess is I ran into them somewhere, looked them up and remembered them, more for their oddity than anything else. Of all the words I taught my students in Ghana, they loved the word bamboozle the best. They pronounced like balmboozle and used it all the time. It became a common word on my school compound. That was the last time I ever heard it used. Too bad as it’s a great word.
Lackaday is another word I’d like to see return. Spell check flagged it. Remus Lupin could never hide his alter ego. It’s in his name. I like that. I remember a Christmas movie where a man described his wife as lachrymose after she had had a few sips of wine. I figured it out from context and watching his wife. I still use the word anon. The Lord of the Rings brought the word wraith back. The moon waxes and wanes. Light and people both waver. Jed Clampett ate vittles. That was the first time I ever heard that word.
Living near the ocean means I get to see waves billow across the strand, and I know to keep boats out of the shoals and what a gunwale is. I am, after all, no booby!
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: archaic words, Ghana
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
June 6, 2010 at 11:14 am
I love those words so seldome used. But Google translator had some troubles with some of those You wrote 🙂 🙂
But it´s hard to ever get a chance to use them in life. Even if I did most people would look at me as if I came from another world. At work it would be impossible, they already think I´m a bit suspect since I´m a gardener 🙂 🙂 🙂
Sunny all day over here, but clouds are slowly comming in from west now. Rain is approaching and stronger winds too. If I had been living by the ocean I would most certanly see waves billow across the strand :-)(by the way, beach is “strand” in swedish)
Have a great day now!
Christer.
June 6, 2010 at 8:50 pm
Christer,
Google does have a few problems translating words. Even their translation is funny.
I use big words but not to sound erudite-they just pop into my head.
That would be one Swedish word I’d understand.
June 6, 2010 at 4:46 pm
“Vittles” Yes! I grew up with that word. It was everywhere in the South. You Yanks have a different vocabulary up there. The other words I don’t think I ever used except for wraith.
June 6, 2010 at 8:51 pm
Z&Me,
I really hadn’t heard the word until Jed, and I loved it.
June 6, 2010 at 5:10 pm
All the black and white ’30’s Westerns that used to appear on San Angelo, TX KTXL program called “Sagebrush Theater” had grizzled ole cowpokes who used the term “vittles” like everybody knew it. Pretty soon…everybody did that watched the show.
I used to think of “wraith” as a literary word. It was one of those words that showed up in poems and period-piece novels about pale and wan late teen or early twenties women who were wasting away (or were they “waisting” away? ) for some lost love.
But that was before it was reintroduced in a way that I will NEVER forget on SciFi (now SyFy) Channel’s really incredible series “Stargate Atlantis”. WOW! The first time you ever spot one of THOSE wraiths, you won’t forget it OR sleep for about 24 hours.
June 6, 2010 at 8:54 pm
Rick,
Great name, Sagebrush Theater, and a grizzled cowpoke host is just perfect.
Yup, I’m with you in finding the Stargate Atlantis wraites totally scary, not only how they look but even how they talked. I won’t even discuss their way of feeding.
June 6, 2010 at 6:13 pm
I’ve usually heard “lackday” as “alackaday,” and only as part of the expression, “alas and alackaday.”
“Vittles”: a corruption of the word, “victuals,” which is just another word for food, often nowadays ascribed to old-fashioned high-class folk. You’d use it to put on airs.
June 6, 2010 at 8:59 pm
Ralph,
I have always heard it as alas and alack but alackaday fits too. Lackaday means almost the same.
I know the word victuals and figured they were related.
June 7, 2010 at 1:21 am
“I am, after all, no booby!”
True, but you are a bird.
Cheers
June 7, 2010 at 11:52 pm
Minicapt,
Okay, I am a bird!