# York University rediscovers 30 lost English words



## Brian G Turner (Sep 15, 2017)

Researchers at York University went through old English texts, compiling a list of words that have fallen out of use - and the media reporting would like to think might have a chance at revival:

Awhape your friends with these words ripe for revival


And the words are:

Ambodexter — One who takes bribes from both sides

Awhape — To amaze, stupefy with fear, confound utterly

Betrump — To deceive, cheat; to elude, slip from

Coney-catch — To swindle, cheat; to trick, dupe, deceive

Dowsabel — Applied generically to a sweetheart, ‘lady-love’

Ear-rent — The figurative cost to a person of listening to trivial or incessant talk

Fumish — Inclined to fume, hot-tempered, irascible, passionate

Hugge — To shudder, shrink, shiver, or shake with fear or cold

Hugger-mugger — Concealment, secrecy; in secret, secretly, clandestinely. Formerly in ordinary literary use, now archaic or vulgar

Losenger — A false flatterer, a lying rascal, a deceiver

Man-millinery — Suggestive of male vanity or pomposity

Merry-go-sorry — A mixture of joy and sorrow

Momist — A person who habitually finds fault; a harsh critic

Nickum — A cheating or dishonest person

Parget — To daub or plaster (the face or body) with powder or paint

Peacockize — To behave like a peacock; esp. to pose or strut ostentatiously

Percher — A person who aspires to a higher rank or status; an ambitious or self-assertive person

Quacksalver — A person who dishonestly claims knowledge of or skill in medicine; a pedlar of false cures

Rouker — A person who whispers or murmurs; one who spreads tales or rumours

Rouzy-bouzy — Boisterously drunk

Ruff — To swagger, bluster, domineer. To ruff it out / to brag or boast of a thing

Sillytonian — A silly or gullible person, esp. one considered as belonging to a notional sect of such people

Slug-a-bed — One who lies long in bed through laziness

Snout-fair — Having a fair countenance; fair-faced, comely, handsome

Stomaching — Full of malignity; given to cherish anger or resentment

Swerk — To be or become dark; in Old English often, to become gloomy, troubled, or sad

Teen — To vex, irritate, annoy, anger, enrage / To inflict suffering upon; to afflict, harass; harm

Tremblable — Causing dread or horror

Wasteheart — Used to express grief, pity disappointment or concern

Wlonk — Proud, haughty / Rich, splendid, fine, magnificent: in later use esp. as a conventional epithet in alliterative verse


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## Foxbat (Sep 15, 2017)

Just looking at the list, I wonder if Nickum is where we get the word nick (steal) from? 
Furthermore, I think it's safe to say that the American people have been betrumped


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## AlexH (Sep 15, 2017)

"Ambodexter" sounds related to "ambidextrous", with a similar meaning. Similarly with "Awhape" and "agape" - and others in that list.

I used to have an "obsolete word of the week" where I once worked. They were chosen randomly from a mailing list I was on that occasionally included obsolete words. Game colleagues and I would insert it into conversation at every opportunity during that week.


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## sknox (Sep 15, 2017)

Some need revision.

Ambodexter: one who kills with either hand
Betrump: become president while being utterly unqualified
Coney-catch: a carnival game (peculiar to NYC)
Losenger: one who swallows a lozenge (var. sp.)
Momist: opposite of a Dadist; not to be confused with Dadaist. Or Mamaist.
Parget: to daub plaster on a target; medieval precursor to painting a target with a laser
Rouzy-bouzy: this cannot be improved upon
Slug-a-bed: testing at Mattress World
Swerk: opposite of twerk
Teen: also cannot be improved upon
Wlonk: alliteration? Srsly?


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## Montero (Sep 15, 2017)

Coney is a rabbit btw

I love ear rent - that one I might take to using. 

Slug a bed I'd heard around/maybe read, likewise hugger-mugger.

I have run into several of these in Georgette Heyer dialogue, in particular coney catcher and man milliner.


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## hej (Oct 3, 2017)

Awesome words!

I am familiar with snoutfair. I think it persists in Icelandic, iirc.

I know (and have used) slug-a-bed and hugger-mugger, but I have a large vocabulary of obsolete and archaic words.

Ear-rent will be very useful to me.

I am too green a member to post the url, but a great resource for lost words is phrontistery (a place for thinking).

Thanks for sharing!


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## hej (Oct 3, 2017)

Incidentally, betrump may not be in use, but trump apparently is. Wikipedia has the following definitions,
(transitive) To get the better of, or finesse, a competitor.
(transitive, dated) To impose unfairly; to palm off.

I find man-millinery humorous, as it derives from millinery (/women's/ hats) -- so, man-"women's hats".

Quacksalver, though a great word, is in my lexicon. It's archaic, yes, but not lost. Another word for it is medicaster.

Awhape (confound) is a fantastic word -- which I did not know.

Thanks again for these excellent words. English is a trove of these gems, though I need be careful lest they verhoodle (awhape) my readers.


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## Montero (Oct 3, 2017)

Trump - its a term from playing from playing the card game Bridge. Gives a suite of cards higher value than the others. So you can trump someone's ace (where the ace is a card from a suite that currently isn't trumps.)


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