Another placement task......Forgotten English Words........

Another placement task......I have been asked to come up with some forgotten English words for a competition they will be running here in April - they have to vote for the one they would like to have reinstated in our language... Here are a few I have come up with and I thought I would share them with you.....!! Did you know any of theses....?? I only knew a couple....!!

Balderdash: What’s forgotten about this word is its 16th century meaning which was “an odd or inappropriate combination of two or more liquors, such as ale and wine” (or even beer and butter-milk).

Feague: In the 18th century this meant “to administer to a horse a suppository made of raw ginger . . . to make the horse livelier”, usually when selling the animal. Livelier, indeed.

Jarkman: A jarkman was a 16th century “vagabond who used his literary talents underhandedly”. Able to read and write, some even knowing Latin, such educated beggars roamed the countryside selling counterfeit passes, licences and other certificates with official-looking seals appended. The word was still in use in the 1830s.

Scuttlebutt: Again, what’s forgotten here is the word’s original meaning (in the 18th century) of the barrel (butt) on a ship from which drinking water could be scooped (scuttled); thus more generally “a place for informal conversation”, then later “gossip”.

Applaudity: clapping of hands for joy

Awarpen: thrown or cast

Begunked: bewildered, surprised, disappointed

Bobbersome: elated; in high spirits

Contumely: language abounding with the bitterest expressions intended to subject a person to the reproach of others and to render him uneasy.
-from Daniel Fenning's Royal English Dictionary, 1775

Comstockery: excessive opposition to, or censorship of, supposed immorality in art or literature; prudery. From the name of Anthony Comstock (1844-1915) member of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice.
- from Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1893

Ignify: to burn
- from Thomas Blount's Glossographia, 1656

Pigsnye: a darling; a "dear little [pig's] eye". Commonly used as an endearing form of address to a girl. [Charles Dickens called his wife "dearest mouse" and "dearest darling pig" (Experienced driver on closed track. Do not try this at home. -- sjf)]
- from Walter Skeat's Glossary of Tudor and Stuart Words, 1914

Rollipoke: coarse hempen cloth; Eastern England.
- from James Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, 1855

Slocket: to commit a petty theft; to pilfer.
- from Major B. Lowsley's Glossary of Berkshire Words and Phrasess, 1888

Starry-gazy-pie: a pie made of pilchards and leeks, the heads of the pilchards appearing throughout the crust as if they were studying the sky.
- from James Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, 1855

Superchery: deceit; cheating.
- from Rev. John Boag's Imperial Lexicon, c. 1850