Thursday Thirteen # 95

One of my most prized books is a single-volume edition of the Oxford Universal Dictionary. Longer, of course, than the Shorter Oxford but nowhere as long as the 12-volume Complete Oxford, its 2515 pages nevertheless contain tens of thousands of words that do not reside in a 21st Century Anglophone’s daily vocabulary. I always enjoy opening it at random and seeing how many words completely unknown to me I can find. Sometimes I even commit a few to memory and try to use them – after all, a word is still a word, even if it has fallen into disuse. And so, ignoring the countless botanical, chemical and biological terms in the book, I have found easily enough for many Thursday Thirteens. Here’s one:

            13 Obscure, Obsolete or Otherwise Unusual Words


Exust   – To burn up.

Cervelat    – A short reed instrument

Cunctator    – Someone who is tardy or delays matters

Porrect    – Stretched  out forward  

Looby  – A lout, clown

Purfle   – The embroidered edge of a garment

Fard  – White paint used as face make-up

Patefy  – To disclose, make open

Roband  – Nautical term for a small piece of rope

Shoat  – A young pig

Neaf  – A fist

Recado – A gift or compliment

Izzard   – The letter Z. This has become shortened to Zed in the English speaking world, except in the USA, where for some reason I have never been able to ascertain, it is known as Zee.  

Comments

[Alice Audrey]

I could see myself using "looby"

[Xakara]

So lovely to see you doing Thursday Thirteen again!

Happy TT,

~Xakara
13 Social Media Sites

[Anthony North]

And I thought Izzard was an attempt at humour :-)

[The Gal Herself]

The Scrabble-lover in me REALLY appreciates this list. Esp. FARD.

[colleen]

I've never heard any of these used in a sentence. I like looby and porrect. Have you ever played fictionary?

[Adelle Laudan]

I don't think I've ever heard any of these words used, and as a published author, I've seen a lot of words. lol
Great list. Happy T13!

[Rasmenia]

Is it just me, or does 'Izzard' seem weird without 'Eddie' in front of it?

Looby. This is great. I'm definitely working this one into my vernacular. Also, it's quite fun to say. Looby, looby, looby!

Oh, yes... I'm keeping this one.

[Pearl]

Let's bring back purfle!

[Heather]

I love vocab posts. I recognize a couple of these, though you don't see them very often.

[Janet]

I used to be a cunctator, but I'm much more punctual nowadays :-)

[Rachel]

I've had a couple of apps on my phone pronounce the letter z as zed. Interesting post. Thanks for stopping by my blog.

[Charity]

Love this list! I will have to use them in conversation soon. Looby is perhaps my favorite. Or Purfle...

[Thorne]

Good one, Nicholas! The only word in your list I am familiar with is "shoat". Peace, friend!

[book publisher]

Very amusing - I've actually never heard any of these used in a sentence, love vocab posts:)

[A. Catherine Noon]

I enjoyed your list! I like finding unusual words and when I read your title, I thought to myself, "Self, these will be words I recognize!"

Boy, was myself wrong! :) Nicely done! The only one I've vaguely heard of is "fard," and I remember it as "fardle" so I'm probably mistaken. A songwriter here in Chicago, John Wiseman, wrote a great song using all the odd and obsolete sea shanty language that makes the song sound horribly salacious when in fact it's simple nautical "stuff." This reminds me of that song.

I hope you continue to write Thursday 13's (that's where I found your blog, is on the TT site); I really enjoyed this one.

Happy TT!

[Matt]

This is great. I'm definitely working this one into my vernacular. Also, it's quite fun to say.
Matt.