"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."
Saturday, 10 October 2009
Desuetude
Desuetude is a state of inactivity or disuse; obsolescence (for example, the state of a custom that is no longer observed nor practised).
I guess a lot of the words I come up I with have reached a state of desuetude!
That one was not in my bedside dictionary. (It might be in some of the others, I'm too lazy to check right now.) I suppose the word itself is an example of a word in desuetude (oh my, the spelling of that word is hard to memorize!)
My daughter Helen commented in November 2008 in her Blog that she was now keeping a notebook of new words that she came across during her reading. "This week I bought a lovely little leather bound book to write new words in as I read them . I've added a few from "1984", but my favourite has to be persiflage (from the French persifler) which means banter." I later discovered that my older daughter, Bryony, also kept a similar notebook.
This inspired me to create a Word blog. This will include both new words, favourite words and the origins of phrases that we commonly use. A definition and some comment, perhaps even a relevant quotation, will acompany the word or phrase.
“I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words bother me.” - Winnie the Pooh
That one was not in my bedside dictionary. (It might be in some of the others, I'm too lazy to check right now.) I suppose the word itself is an example of a word in desuetude (oh my, the spelling of that word is hard to memorize!)
ReplyDeleteYes, Dawn Treader - and it is hard to imagine the correct pronounciation as well. I think it is Deh-sweh-tewd.
ReplyDelete