But that would mean...

If you've read any of my previous posts, you'll know that I quite like using words that are rare and beautiful.  Words that don't get used in normal conversations very often.  Words that may have been more popular an age ago 'When the Map was Pink.'

Why do I prefer these words?  Well, I think that it's a real shame that we let these real words die when new ones come along.  I mean, I appreciate that the language moves with the times and the younger generation makes alterations to it based on fashion and emergent technology... For every 'Forsooth! or Egad!' there's a 'Chillax!' and for every 'Stout Yeoman' there's a 'Fam'

I don't mean to say that modern language is worse (Although it obviously is, in my not so humble opinion) And I truly look forward to the time, several hundred years in the future, where my brain is safely ensconced within a bulletproof plastic tank atop a fifty foot high, death dealing android body, where the rank and file plebeian populace will say things like:

'Subject number 236512, do you notice how Overseer 152 occasionally communicates using 21st Century terms?'
'Yes Subject number 623621, I do not understand why the identifying photograph on my survival suit is termed a "Selfie" or his exhortation for us to work faster is often preceded by him asking us to "Get our twerk on".'
'No Subject number 236512, I was not even aware that I had a "twerk" nor that it had accidentally fallen off.'

Also, I won't deny that I occasionally slip in a few snippets of modern youth argot for comedic effect - One likes to think that one is 'Down with the kids' doesn't one?

So, for your enjoyment and edification, I should like to present you with a few archaic or scientific terms, that may have fallen out of favour nowadays, but I think are due for a bit of a renaissance.

• Abraxas - A jewel or amulet, engraved with writing or imagery
• Bestiocracy - To be ruled by beasts
• Crepuscular - Of the twilight (as opposed to nocturnal - night or diurnal - day)
• Digitigrade - To walk only on the toes, like a cat or dog
• Euphonism - The use of pleasing sounding words (not to be confused with Euphemism)
• Factotum - A lackey or general assistant
• Gawdelpus - Someone who is completely helpless (Gawd-Elp-Us)
• Hystricine - Of, or pertaining to porcupines
• Impecunious - Having no money
• Jawhole - The entrance to a sewer
• Kobold - A spirit, specifically one attached to mineworkings
• Lexer - A Student of the law
• Mammiform - Shaped like a breast
• Numen - The presiding Deity of an area or group
• Ornithopter - A machine that flies like a bird (by flapping its wings etc.)
• Paneity - The state of actually being bread
• Quicksilver - Archaic name for Mercury (the liquid metal, not the planet)
• Rigidulous - Semi-stiff... *cough*
• Scholion - A note, written in the margin
• Trin - One of a set of triplets
• Uxorious - Being excessively fond of your own wife
• Visibilia - Things that can be seen
• Whiskerine - A beard-growing competition
• Xylomancy - Telling the future by examining pieces of wood, found on the path in front of you
• Yonderlay - Being mentally distant (not what Speedy Gonzales shouts)
• Zaftig - Having a full, round figure

I thought that twenty-six examples might be apposite.

As before when I've given you some new words to play with, try slamming them lewdly into any conversation that you may, or may not, have today.

Drop me a line, let me know how you got on - I'm genuinely interested,