Archaic words

[richlevy]

I'm reading "End of the Century", part of which is set in Victorian England.

I came across the term "tribadist", which is an archaic word for lesbian. I was pretty sure from the context, but I still tried to look it up on Webster. I ended up having to do a general Google search because the word is either too archaic or the Webster people are prudes.

Some other archaic words you don't hear much:

gadfly
malarkey
hullabaloo

[DanaC]

Malarkey is in common currency in the uk. certainly in the north. I use that word quite a lot in conversation.

hullabaloo is sometimes used but not much.

[kerosene]

What about "Gadzooks?"

[ZenGum]

In sooth, such verbiage oft falls from my lips.

I have students who think of a Chinese word, put it through a translating dictionary, and ignore the bit where it says "obs.".
So I get essays with words like vainglorious, nidering, etc.
These are kids who sometimes don't know words like collapse, circular, etc.

P.S. Tribadism: two women, legs interwoven, each rubbing their thigh against the other's crotch (and vice versa, presumably). FYI. TMI?

[Clodfobble]

Scissoring! I learned about that from South Park.

[SteveDallas]

hortatory

[Chocolatl]

One of my favorites is "beeves" -- plural for "beef."

[ZenGum]

I used to have a hardcopy of Thrawn Janet by R L Stevenson. It is deliberately written in the voice of an old Scotsman of the latter 1700s. You want archaic words?

Fifty years syne, when Mr. Soulis cam' first into Ba'weary, he was still a young man,--a callant, the folk said,--fu' o' book-learnin' and grand at the exposition, but, as was natural in sae young a man, wi' nae leevin' experience in religion. The younger sort were greatly taken wi' his gifts and his gab; but auld, concerned, serious men and women were moved even to prayer for the young man, whom they took to be a self-deceiver, and the parish that was like to be sae ill supplied. It was before the days o' the Moderates--weary fa' them; but ill things are like guid--they baith come bit by bit, a pickle at a time; and there were folk even then that said the Lord had left the college professors to their ain devices, an' the lads that went to study wi' them wad hae done mair and better sittin' in a peat-bog, like their forebears of the persecution, wi' a Bible under their oxter and a speerit o' prayer in their heart. There was nae doubt, onyway, but that Mr. Soulis had been ower-lang at the college. He was careful and troubled for mony things besides the ae thing needful. He had a feck o' books wi' him--mair than had ever been seen before in a' that presbytery; and a sair wark the carrier had wi' them, for they were a' like to have smoored in the Deil's Hag between this and Kilmackerlie.

I think it is a great story and has a great ending.

[ZenGum]

"Neo-conservative".

Haven't heard that in a while, have you?

[DanaC]

Bray, as in to hit.

Brayin' on the door to get in

tret: past tense of treat

sen: self

all of those sound really archaic to me, but they're used a lot by people around here.