Some gems from my Forgotten English calendar (by Jeffrey Kacirk) that would probably make good fodder for blog titles:
- motch: To eat little, slowly, quietly and secretly; to consume or waste imperceptibly. Also slow, quiet eating, with the idea of fondness for good living.
- quidnunc: One who is curious to know everything; one who is perpetually asking, “What now? What news?” One who knows, or affects to know, every occurance. Hence, quidnuncism, quidnunckery, curiosity, love of news, gossip.
- watch one’s corners: to keep a sharp look out; to be shrewdly attentive (from paying special attention in ploughing the corners of one’s land).
- ketchcraft: The hangman’s craft, from Jack Ketch.
- selynesse: Happiness, from the Saxon sely, silly, simle, harmless.
- zounderkite: Usually applied to someone whose stupid conduct results in awkward mistakes.
- swaff: To come one over the other, like waves upon the shore. [“The Swaffing Zounderkites”?]
- momist: A fault-finder; from the Latin momus, a Greek divinity, the god of ridicule, who, for his censures upon the gods, was banished from heaven; hence, a captious critic.
- chuffy: Haughty, proud, puffed up; fat and fleshy. In some parts, clownish.
- natiform: In the form of a buttock.
- tip the velvet: To tongue a woman (that’s the definition in B.E.’s Dictionary of the Canting Crew, 1699)
Remember, if you see these as blog titles, you saw them here first.
(tip of the title hat to Adam)
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