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What is an
Obsolete Word?
Definition and Examples
Updated April 12, 2017
Obsolete word
is a temporal label commonly used by lexicographers (that is, editors of dictionaries) to indicate that a word (or a particular form or sense of a
word) is no longer in active use in speech and writing.
"In general," notes Peter Meltzer, "the
difference between an obsolete word and an archaic word is that, although both have
fallen into disuse, an obsolete word has done so more recently" (The
Thinker's Thesaurus, 2010).
The editors of The American Heritage Dictionary of the
English Language (2006) make this distinction:
Archaic.
[T]his label is attached to entry words and senses for which there is only
sporadic evidence in print after 1755 . . ..
Obsolete. [T]his label is attached to entry words and senses for which
there is little or no printed evidence since 1755.
In addition, as Knud Sørensen points out, "it sometimes
occurs that words which have become obsolete in Britain continue to be current
in the United States (compare Amer. Engl. fall and Brit. Engl. autumn)" (Languages
in Contact and Contrast, 1991).
Examples and Observations
Illecebrous
"Illecebrous [ill-less-uh-brus] an obsolete word meaning
'attractive, alluring.' From a Latin word meaning 'to entice.'"
(Erin McKean, Totally Weird and Wonderful Words. Oxford University
Press, 2006)
Mawk
"The underlying meaning of mawkish is 'maggotish.' It was derived
from a now obsolete word mawk, which meant literally 'maggot' but was used figuratively (like maggot itself)
for a 'whim' or 'fastidious fancy.' Hence mawkish originally meant
'nauseated, as if repelled by something one is too fastidious to eat.' In the
18th century the notion of 'sickness' or 'sickliness' produced the present-day
sense 'over-sentimental.'"
(John Ayto, Word Origins, 2nd ed. A & C Black, 2005)
Muckrake
"Mudslinging and muckraking--two words commonly connected
with the pursuit of an elected office and the flotsam the campaigns leave in
their wake.
"Voters seem fairly familiar with the term used to describe malicious or
scandalous attacks against opponents, but the latter 'm' word may be new for
some people. It is an obsolete word describing a tool used to rake muck
or dung and used in reference to a character in John Bunyan’s classic Pilgrim’s
Progress [1678]--'the Man with the Muck-rake' who rejected salvation to
focus on filth."
(Vanessa Curry, "Don’t Muck It Up, and We Won’t Rake It." The
Daily Herald [Columbia, TN], April 3, 2014)|
- "Obsolete words are admitted when they are found in authors not
obsolete, or when they have any force or beauty that may deserve revival."
(Samuel Johnson in the preface to his Dictionary of the English Language,
1755)
- "[Samuel] Johnson accommodates 'obsolete' terms to help his
readers understand writers like Francis Bacon, Spenser and Shakespeare, and
sometimes he suggests they should be salvaged from oblivion. . . . One example
is 'manurance,' a term he has found in Spenser, meaning 'agriculture' or
'cultivation.' It is 'an obsolete word, worthy of revival.'"
(Henry Hitchings, Defining the World: The Extraordinary Story of Dr.
Johnson's Dictionary. Picador, 2005)
Subjective Judgments: Griefsome
in the OED
- -
"Griefsome was . . . labelled obsolete during the
writing of the first edition of the OED. A few months later, however,
one of the editors used griefsome in drafting the definition of grievesomeness
('the quality or condition of being griefsome'), as a draft proof still
records. Here, intuition and usage failed to coincide; paradoxically griefsome
was both obsolete (according to the label it had been given) and current
(according to the usage of one of the editors). For the OED, in a
pre-digital age, the problem was resolved, at least superficially, by
omitting the definition. If this secured consistency, it was nevertheless
at the expense of the facts of usage. The range of electronic databases
available to a modern editor can, in contrast, quickly confirm that the
ongoing usage of griefsome was by no means anomalous (and that the
verdict of 'obsolete' was, at least at that point in lexical history,
entirely unfounded)." (Lynda Mugglestone, Dictionaries: A Very
Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2011)
- -
"With Chopin I forget all craftsmanship of piano-playing and sink
into the sweet underground of his music, into the griefsome
loveliness of his deep as delicate creations." ("Heine as
Musical Critic." Music: A Monthly Magazine, 1899)
Back From the Dead: Revived Words
- "[I]t
is interesting to note how often disused words are put to use again after
long periods of dormancy. In numerous cases the reintroduction of an obsolete
word goes hand in hand with some change of either meaning or use. . .
. In contemporary economics the noun franchising 'authorization
granted to an individual or group by a company to sell its products or
services in a particular area,' attested since 1966, is a revival of an
older word, recorded once in the sixteenth and once in the seventeenth
century in the more general sense of 'investing with a franchise or
privilege,' but the connection is clear enough."
(Knud Sørensen, "On Revived Words in the OED Supplement."
Languages in Contact and Contrast, ed. by Vladimir Ivir et al.
Walter de Gruyter, 1991)
The Lighter Side of Obsolete Words:
Words Ending in -gry
- "Two
words in English end in -gry. One is angry. What is the
other one?
"Hungry.
"There used to be many more English words with the -gry ending,
but they have become obsolete. The puzzle often asks for a third
word. The third word, a word we no longer use, is puggry. It means
a scarf worn around a sun helmet. Even more interesting: There are three
alternative spellings for this word--pugree, puggree, and puggaree!
Another obsolete word for hungry, anhungry, remains in some
dictionaries because it is quoted in Shakespeare's Coriolanus, Act
I."
(Doreen Scott-Dunne, When Spelling Matters: Developing Writers Who Can
Spell and Understand Language. Pembroke, 2013)
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