One Word at a Time

I have a few:

1. Maofich

2. Fugarwi

3.Donzerlee

4.kinkyturtle

5. Philsnyder

Where have THESE words gone?

Eicastic

O boy O boy O boy....a hunt, kind of like one of those,er, not treasure, but, um, I forget what they are called....Ya know, as we age, we do tend to lose words,too....I wonder if they also end up with those lost socks from the dryer....

Ummgawa~ I use one of those words rather often...each time my GPS hiccups,,,,,,

I can't find myEsperanto dictionary,either

I'm at a loss for words.

I really love:
PREGNATRESS - someone who gives birth to new idea's, thoughts and projects and situations.

re: today's vote.....is a Homerkin the amount of brew a certain Simpson could consume?

All kidding aside, a good dictionary is always at my side. Actually more than one, I need a legal dictionary for work {it's really really tacky to misspell some musty dusty Latin term that's still in use in pleadings}. Then for travel, Spanish {with contemporary slang & regional terms} is a must. I still have a Russian dictionary, left inadvertently in our conference room by a translator.....but the disappointing thing is that the Russian language book she also forgot was a self-help book by Napoleon Hill, essentially glorifying capitalism as the panacea for all of life's problems. "Think & grow rich." Barf, barf, barf.....lol

Hoi polloi,

Is another word,

Not often heard,

So is there doubt,

It’s on its way out?

"Oh No" he said
cause in his head
Hoi Polloi
is not yet dead

I have nothing locupletative to offer... or do I ?

I love the dictionary and could spend hours reading definitions of words I'm unfamiliar with, even remembering some of them, though I haven't had the pleasure of this pastime in quite a while.

"Lagniappe" is  Peterman's  clever  tie  into  today's  theme.....

Let’s hustle, let’s bustle,

And get these long lost words,

Into a crossword puzzle.

www.wordnik.com

RY~ The Fugarwi a pygmy tribe who live in an area of very tall grassland, they navigate from one lone tree to the next - between trees they march along chanting "We're the Fugarwi" 'cos, 'till they reach the next tree & climb up to have a look, they can never be sure.
Morning all - hello Zenaida.
 

RY~ A firkin is a size of beer barrel. Love the idea  of  a Homerkin inspired by Mr. Simpson.

Hazel~they also ride, and many was the gas stop,beer,cig (fag that side of the water)and the same gutteral presentation could be heard "Where da fagawi?!?"...so indeed, part of the 'tribe' was wandering here,as well,and I ,myself, was a part...

Hazel~I am personally glad you did NOT say merkin

a lusty old broad in wales
found she needed more than simple emails
so she scavenged around
and here's what she found
a place that loves to read tales

Well, it's good to wake up early (It's 7am here) & lower the tone of the place before the day has started. You lot should be tucked up in bed!

RY~ Thanks, ...... I think!

Whilst is one of my favorite words seldom used. Seems whilst I've been absent many new players have shimmied up to the table. Good to see the new and the not so new all here. I'll be sitting at the poker table in the back of the club car if any want to play...or just talk.

Tales from Wales ~ a young English couple had moved to Wales and enrolled their kids in the local primary school. They were chatting to the teacher & saying that they were attending classes to learn Welsh. The teacher replied "Well, it's better to have a crap!"
Welsh speakers, when speaking Welsh will throw in the English word if the Welsh word does not come to mind & when speaking English will throw in a Welsh word. The Welsh word 'crap' means a smattering or a smidgen.
I got an odd-eyed dog from a Welshman - one brown eye, one blue. "You know she has a glass eye?" he asked. Hm-mm, I said. The Welsh word for 'blue' is 'glas', which I didn't know at the time. Dear Blot, the dog with a glass eye also had an undershot jaw, which gave her a permanent stupid grin. It was impossible to tell her off as just making eye contact with her would make me laugh.
The comments in the blog up top about the shrinking vocabulary are interesting. I'm just as lazy as the next person when it comes to using words, but I get diverted when I need to look in a dictionary as I get engrossed in finding new words & forget what I was looking for in the first place.
Mae'n bwrw eira - that's Welsh for it's snowing.

Volumptuous.................HAZEL.......send snow, NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

KC:  Damned Good to see you, at long last .......
 
HOWDY to all Y'all !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
 
Just checkin' by, Glad to see y'all percolatin' along .......

For years, my dad has adopted little used and completely un-understood words and wedged them into conversation.
Confused people ask if that man is okay?
"I'm sorry, what man?"

'Twas brillig, and the slithey toves did gyre ang gimble in the wabe, all mimsy were the borogroves and the mome raths outgrabe. - How the Jabberwocky fired up my imagination when I was a child & the same for my son & grand daughter.
I'm going to ask Santa for a runciple spoon.I always wanted one.
Supercalafragalisticexpialidocious.
Welcome home KC.

bebe~ welcome to as much snow as you want, but you have to collect. Bring a shovel & start on my drive .... watching the stuff come down is enchanting, mesmerising, shiversdownyerspineing but I can't get OUT. Not the end of the world, plenty of mysterious stuff in the freezer. Foodie adventures and the digestive consequences await.

Good morning all - and a special hello to Zenaida and KC!

RY to Hazel at 1.54am...wicked wicked ...er...were you drunk dialling?

Hazel - I see on the weather news the really cold spell you're getting. Hope this site's helping you to keep warm!

Supercalafragalisticexpialidocious - totally sesquipedalianistic.  One favoured word for me at the mo is zeitgeist ... it sounds like a sword cutting through the air, totally reflective of the spirit of an age. As one who straddles more than one culture, I find I have to borrow words from my non-english side sometimes to better express myself. In fact, in Singapore and Malaysia, we call this eclectic mix "rojak".

While we are on words, I'll like to revisit an offtopic some of us discussed a couple of days back .... 

This poem, supposedly written by an African child and nominated poem of 2005:

When I born, I Black, When I grow up, I Black, When I
go in Sun, I Black, When I scared, I Black, When I
sick, I Black, And when I die, I still black... And
you White fellow, When you born, you pink, When you
grow up, you White, When you go in Sun, you Red, When
you cold, you blue, When you scared, you yellow, When
you sick, you Green, And when you die, you Gray... And
you call me colored

Spring Fragrance ~ That poem is excellent! Print-off & up on the wall stuff.
Can't speak for RY, but I was sober, just kidding' around. It's a long time since a man wrote a poem for me (even it it was a limerick) - so I feel highly honoured.
 

Ummgawa, I am pretty sure a classmate of mine MARRIED PhilSnyder

Paulina Porizkova is said to be fond of sturionic ova.

Ma Typical's dictionary has one I heard often as a lad. "Tommy, stop fiddlefarting around."- The implication is not to dawdle or hem-haw. So to Congress I say "stop fiddlefarting around."

SF's 'rojak' is similar to our Wenglish , Franglish, Spanglish etc. I'm sure there are numerous examples out there on the Web. RY mentioned Esperanto earlier - never really caught on, despite it being a good idea. The more the world shrinks in terms of economic migration, the more common vocabulary we have. And the more we should protect our uncommon words as a threatened species.
 

Guest is not kidding about his dad. I once, facetiously, presented him with a big rubber mallet the better to force his tortured vocabulary into sentences.
He kept my good hammer and his bad habit.

hazel ~
For some reason, "all mimsy," sound like it might have been descriptive of your 'bonfire at the top of the garden' friends.

Spring ~
A boy, in our neighborhood, held everyone in suspense as he spoke of the tension surrounding the birth of his big city cousin's child (she'd been keeping time with a black guy).
"All babies are born white and you have to wait until the air hits them to see if they turn black."
I don't think it did.
 

I don't know about that, Willie, but about a month ago she sat at the next table in a coffee shop, on Irving Place, tearing up a croissant and dipping the pieces into a white bowl of red jam.
Nobody (else) seemed to paying much attention.

 
 
I had a good buddy of mine ask me one time "Jim, who in the hell is Phil Snyder?"
 
My first response was "I have no idea, dude, who in the hell is Phil Snyder?".
 
He said (and he was serious) "ya know the Eagles sing about him in "Heartache Tonight..."
 
"Whaaaa?" I said confused.
 
"You know, (melodically) 'Phil Snyders gonna last forever, last all last all summer long' from heartache tonight"
 
 
I was going to say "you total dumbass" but I just let it go, it wouldn't have mattered.

Mr. Lake- I loved your description of yourself as a "mixed metaphor" I believe. Cheers to that!
***
Stoney- The let the hammer fall theory it seems is effective.
***
The string of jumbled curse terms from the Father in Christmas Story generally describes me on a project. My wife after witnessing a few of these outbursts early in our marriage asked if I was having fun and when I answered absolutely she seemed confused. I have always been Passion's Plaything. Imagine lovemaking without the universal right to say whatever comes into your head and the trust of your partner to not ever reveal it. Pillow talk should be in the constitution as protected speech if it could in fact be translated.
 

Ummgawa:
Love your friends misheard lyric.  Reminds me of a pal who misheard a line in the Pina Colada song.  The lyrics go:
 
"I've got to meet you by tomorrow noon
And cut through all this red-tape
At a bar called O'Malley's
Where we'll plan our escape."
 
Instead of a bar called O'Malley's, he heard "in a dark bowling alley."  Which made sense to him,. if you're cheating on someone....

 
 
Willie- I bet it wasn't THAT Phil Snyder, lol.
 
Tommy- My Awesome Dad used to use "Fiddlefarting around" on a semi-regular basis. He also used to use a word rarely heard called "Peckery" when describing where a young boys hands may have been before handling anything he might have thought important. He'd first requiring a judicious hand washing before allowing myself to pick up any object he deemed important or before eating at his table.
 
Example "Boy, get your peckery hands off that before you infect it your germs" or "wash those peckery hands before you eat" or "get your peckery hands off me before I have to drop you like a bad habit".
 
There are a lot of exceptionally sharp knives in this drawer, so I'll explain no further.

insert 'with' between "it" and "your germs"...

My now 16 year old, when but a lovely child of four, asked me "Daddy, what's a Kinky Turtle?"

Holding back the obvious urge to laugh out loud and just before sending her to ask her mother, I decided to ask her "I'm not sure honey, a kinky turtle?" and chuckled under my breath.

" yes Daddy, we sang it in church Sunday, and I was wondering what a kinky turtle was"

"We did?" was all I could muster..."when?"

"You know daddy, the hymn we sang":

Lead on, O Kinky Turtle (O King eternal),
the day of march has come;
henceforth in fields of conquest
thy tents shall be our home.
Through days of preparation
thy grace has made us strong;
and now, O King eternal,
we lift our battle song. 

Lead on, O Kinky Turtle (O King eternal),
till sin's fierce war shall cease,
and holiness shall whisper
the sweet amen of peace.
For not with swords loud clashing,
nor roll of stirring drums;
with deeds of love and mercy
the heavenly kingdom comes.

Lead on, O Kinky Turtle (O King eternal),
we follow, not with fears,
for gladness breaks like morning
where'er thy face appears.
Thy cross is lifted o'er us,
we journey in its light;
the crown awaits the conquest;
lead on, O God of might.

Her Mom and I still get a good laugh out of that every time it gets sang.

Umm- I was and remain a peckerwood.

A peckery, according to my Whimsey Dictionary, is the place chickens and woodpeckers keep their stash

Stashed his cash in Ecuador. Bought a new suit of clothes

Ummgawa~ Auntie is admiring little child's love-worn teddy bear. One eye fell off & Mom sewed it back on slightly askew. Auntie asks "What's you Teddy named?" & the child replied "Gladly"
"Well," says Auntie, that's a strange name for a bear. "No," said the child, "In chuch we sing a song that goes "GLADLY THY CROSS I'D BEAR"" Gottchya!!!!

En ceinte (an sant') To be pregnant; with child.
 
The only place I have ever seen the word is in my great-grandmother's 1890 affadavit and request for a continuation of my great grandfather's Civil War pension for wounds recieved in battle. It seems she had "taken up" (her words) with my great grandfather at a time in the late 1860s and there was a question as to whether they were married.
 
Several pillars of the community had included affadavits attesting to the fact they had lived together as husband and wife including the doctor who had delivered my grandfather. HIs statement went something like "...at 6:38 PM, May 8, 1869 I was called to the Hall residence at Winslow's farm in Benton County, AR.. Upon arriving I found Mrs. Hall to be 'en ceinte.' I delivered a male child who was nomed George William Hall,etc."
 
In my own warped way I've taken pride in the fact my great grandfather was such a charmer my great grandmother 'took up' with him ergo my own existence the absence of which is saddening to contemplate.

Kids have the funniest ideas in Church. My little brother thought that the Holy Ghost was one that had a really ragged old white sheet with more than the usual two holes to see through. He'd thought about ghosts a lot & told me they are invisible, so they have to wear sheets so WE can see them, which I thought was clever thinking for a little kiddy. And he thought God was called Harlod - as in "hallowed be thy name"

there is,sadly, an awful lot of children that think their name is Shaddup N. Sidown

That great American philosopher Richard Pryor said he was 16 before he knew his name was not Dammit Boy!

Great site Mr. P has provided. If you haven't ventured over there I would suggest a visit:  http://www.savethewords.org/ I chose latibule, which is a hiding place: A latibule isn't a latibule if everyone knows about it.   

Only Beluga, Willie .......

I believe all words are at some time, some place, in some circumstances; extremely important and relevant. This is why I have become an antifloccinaucinihilipilificationist! 

I think I just hurt myself..... gotta go now.... All of your terrific posts have my head trying to take them all in like a one-eyed dog in a butcher shop........Bye

And before I forget..... Hazel,... your Tales from Wales and Spring,..... your poem are both priceless....... Bebe, ......we've got snow coming our way....... I'll send you some as soon as there is enough to make it scenic....... and I'll bet Park4 and Stoney will do the same......... TT..... that should be a Bad Mixed Metaphor but I thank you for being generous....

When I was in the third grade my Dad named our new parakeet Peckerhead....... The nun who attempted to teach me that year was not amused when I shared this good news......

RIP   old #10

Stoney...... we lost a good one for sure. He's in my Hall of Fame.

I second jmr's recommendation to check out www.savethewords.org - take one a day with a glass of water.

Has anyone tried this site:
 
http://www.freerice.com/
 
This is a word game in which you define words (It gets harder the longer you play.) and the site donates rice /food to the hungry. It keeps a score and lets you try to beat your best score from previous tries. It is odd how we may intuit meanings and really not know the word (especially true if you have studied Latin), and get it right! Enjoy.
 
I followed PE's recommendation and adopted the word "pamphragous" bc I find many of us are that way. Being pamphragous, we like cake as well as venison.

My favorite for obsolete words is "redd."  My grandmother, who died 32 years ago and was raised in rural Iowa and Kansas, used to say that she was going to "redd up the dishes."  It means "put in order or make tidy."  I use it often enoght that my children know it. 

Santorial ~ expressive action, characteristically of happiness and joy, and
characterized by jumping in the air and clicking one's heels.  He took off down
the third base line in a santorial manner.

Mooseloop~ That site is good fun.

and wouldn't you know it, the word I adopted was  Primifluous

OK, here it is, my growing up understanding of the word PECKERY, used in the sentence "Boy, wash those peckery hands before you eat that sandwich".

Pecker, the word, is slang (in the South of my youth) for a man's manhood, wedding tackle, twig and berries, Johnsonville brat, and for heavens sake, penis. Men in the pubescent and prepubescent years start to figure out that "it" is made for more than voiding one's bladder. Upon this realization, young men go through changes that include excess handling of his own baggage, glands either secret or excrete, and deoderant is introduced into said young man's life. Next comes soap on a rope and lots of showers.

The term Peckery, as in Peckery Hands, would denote hands that have excessivly handled said manhood without proper hygene afterward. I.E. washing one's hands.

That concludes today's lesson.

Discombobulated - mildly inconvenienced. I just like the sound of it.
 

Lynn, welcome back.

I believe we(men) all knew this, as we had been writing our names without writing instruments since, oh, I don't really know, but even before that, I would posit

In reference to Hazel, ummgawa, and Frangrance's midheard lyrics, my teen students liked to brag that they sang, unobserved, instead of "the consecrated cross I bear," blending their voices with the congregation, "the constipated crosseyed bear."
 
 I guess transposing similar sounds is pretty common. My kindergarten son came home one day long ago and announced that his neighbor Julie had "goosepaws." Flummoxed, we stared at him.  We questioned him about the symptoms until we realized she was stricken with chickenpox. Potato- potahto!

It is considered squiriferous to partake of a prandicle prior
to molrowing or any other sementine activity.
 
Theomeny on those molrowing.
 
There are those who would say that George Walker Bush was our
first frutescent president. 
 
Ain't words fun?

oh no, you are going to make me tell this, aren't you...about the kindergarten kid that told the teacher there was a dead cat in the schoolyard....."No,it is probably just napping" said the teacher, not wanting to bruise the youngster's inner child with thoughts of the great beyond..."Oh no, it is dead" said the child,quite emphatically.."I know, 'cause I pissed in its ear..."   "WHAT?!?" said an obviously disturbed teacher...."You know"said the child"I bent over and blew in its ear PSSSSST..............."

paolos...... I think Ronnie would like your word.  Maybe it should be classified under a heading of 'living life'  Nice one.

TT - Reference to the "peckerwood" - Many folks in the South use that term for all woodpeckers. Just a reversal of the syllables.
 
However, as a nickname, it reminds me that my father,William (1905-1963), was nicknamed "Sap" for "sapsucker" and his redhaired brother, George (1907-1994), was called "Peck" for "peckerwood" after common birds in the part of western Tennessee where they were kids. Sap and Peck were the only names local folks knew for them as I found out when I went there to Waverly, TN to do some research on the family tree. 

My middle daughter asked me "what is donzerly?" when she was small, some 18 years ago.

Of course, I had no idea what she was talking about and told her as much.

She said "it's in the Star Spangled Banner"...

"Whaaaa?" my "what in the H E double hockey sticks are you talking about " traditional answer.

She sang:

"OH, SAY CAN YOU SEE"

"BY THE DONZERLY LIGHT...."

Mooseloop- A woodpecker once told me- "Tommy, I beat my head against the tree and the universe provides for me. you beat your head against a tree and get so dizzy you can't see/ I am a superior species." I did not argue with him.

Number 2, Fugarwi, everyone knows that one.

And last but certainly not least "MAOFICH"

Whe I was in the ninth grade, I played football at our only High School in the county, and was proficient enough to dress and play with the Varsity, unheard of back in 1974.

One of the kinder black ball players (Seniors hated Freshmen) was a fellow named Leviticus Palmer. He'd watch out for me knowing a senior ball player would take any opportunity to clobber a lowly freshman, so I befriended him. He was a serious Jive talker, and if you read my posts a few days back, I became fluent in jive as a defense mechanism being the last white kid to leave my all black school. Leviticus liked that I was a whitebread (as he called me) and decent player, but my ability to speak and interpret jive sealed the deal.

There was one big ole black dude on our team that had it out for me regardless of how friendly I was with the other seniors, and he made that point clear. One day at practice, he cheap shotted me in the back knocking my down, then stepped in the middle of my back with his size 14&1/2 cleats pissing this 135 pound ball of fire off. I jumped up and tackled him from behind knowing he was twice my size. I rolled the dice hoping one or more of my team mates might step in and help. I held my own for about thirty five seconds when this dude proceeded to throw me around like a box of wet spaghetti noodles. I was about to get my ass kicked in.

Big homie drew back to punch me when Leviticus layed a perfect shot right to his temple. Biggie let me go, and while he layed on the ground not knowing what hit him, Leviticus stood over him and that's when I heard "Maofich" for the first time.

Leviticus looked down at Biggie and said:

"Bru, what dee hell is MAOFICH you?"

Interpretation:

"Brother, what in the hell is the matter with you?"

Shalom in your home.

Peace between your ears.

And blessings, many blessings, to each of you.

haze- every machine that is broken in the multiverse suffers from a discombobulated framus valve.

Or, Tommy, a misaligned flux capacitor.

Lynn830, good to see you back, sir. My wife is from Cumberland MD and 'redd up the dishes' was and may still be a common term there.
 
RY, re: the original writing instrument...I'd bet its first use was somewhere around the first snow.

PL ~ Just a tip of the cap to a legend who should be in the Hall of Fame.

umm- ...with a blown sphericalhyperdriveinstanttracemechanism 

RY, et al, Off subject (maybe) but has anyone out there read a book titled Pissing in the Snow and othe Ozark Folktales by Vance Randolph? If I remember correctly the book is a PhD study of Ozark Mountains' humor. Talk about ethnic/regional humor...funny!!!

For a Sabbath within a Sabbath ...
 
I Wish You All a Most Blessed Weekend !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
May All Good Things Fill Your House !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
CHAG  SAMEACH !!!     HAPPY  HOLIDAYS !!!!!!!!!!!
 
 
IVAN

TT & Ummy~ The Englidh venacular you are searching for is 'knackered'

Lynn830- Aloha, Sir. Good to see you and KY Curmudgeon back in the game. Around my area it was ""Ahm fixin" as in "Ahm fixin to raise that window up." The useless preposition that dangled at the end of a sentence caused Miss Johnson to fly into a rage and everyone's giggle box would get turned over which made her angrier and then I would find myself standing in the hallway all alone reading my Bazooka Joe fortune.   

Would that be English?

Run, RUN FOR YOUR LIVES, the snollygosters are coming,
the SNOLLYGOSTERS are HERE.
 
We should all be able to work snollygoster into a sentence at least once a
week, no matter on which side of the aisle we stand.

Geroge Hall~ A first snowfall ceremony for my brothers was to piss their names in the snow. Boys!!!

Now that we have brought up the yellow snow which you never ever eat. Someone has got to post the Zappa song about the enlightened Eskimo. 

Now I know I'm up shite creek without a paddle...... I've lost my whatchamacallit,  thingamajig and doohickey all in the same day..... they gotta be somewhere???

Relax, Peter, you left them by the doohda.
 

under the fabled missing dryersox

where the biros are,
and the vehicle documents that the police want to see
and the user instructions for the central heating boiler and, and, and.

Hey Lynn! Good to see you again! 
 
What a lot of funny posts today from all! - I love especially all the misheard lyrics! Reminds me of my then 2 year old son, just learning to speak. I was driving when he said seriously to me "mudder sucker". I almost drove into the kerb....."whhaat???"  "Mudder sucker! Mudder sucker!!" This went on for awhile - he became increasingly frustrated and agitated, like he was sitting on a pot of prawns being boiled alive. I meantime, was starting to be haunted by my son growing up with a delinquent vocabulary.
"M-U-D-D-E-R    S-U-C-K-E-R!!!" and pointed triumphantly to the offending target. "Ohhhhhh!!! Motor Cycle!!"  
 
I learnt a lot of new words today and have collected resources for more new words, but know what the longest word in the language is? - its S-M-I-L-E-S- because there is a mile between the first and last letter and that's what you good folks gave me today! 

Ivan and the tribe - Happy Sabbath~!

 
This is great!  How to save the endangered species, Lost Words
 
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article4799560.ece
 

Whilst we are on the
topic...icantbelieveitsnotbutter
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MsbvGmLaU4
 
A good weekend to all and to you also
KYC.

Where'sdabeef

Hazel...... did I leave them by this doo-da?

The Campptown ladies sing this song,
Doo-da, Doo-da
The Camptown racetrack's five miles long
Oh, de doo-da day

Goin' to run all night
Goin' to run all day
I bet my money on a bob-tailed nag
Somebody bet on the gray

Oh, the long tailed filly and the big black horse,
Doo-da, doo-da
Come to a mud hole and they all cut across,
Oh, de doo-da day

Goin' to run all night
Goin' to run all day
I bet my money on a bob-tailed nag
Somebody bet on the gray

I went down there with my hat caved in,
Doo-da, doo-da
I came back home with a pocket full of tin
Oh, de doo-da day

Goin' to run all night
Goin' to run all day
I bet my money on a bob-tailed nag
Somebody bet on the gray

There is a doodah day parade in Boston

I know the song PL mentioned ..De campton ladies but what is a doodah day?

Why dat would be just a fine, fine day methinks...and an even better doodah night if you like to run that is..;-)

and there is always the doodah booth, over in the corner of the Club Car...it has those fine old horse hair filled high backed wing style chairs, and the riding crop that rings the bell for the porter,(who is usually a short actor dressed in riding silks)but the part that makes it popular amongst our own"horsey set" is probably the apples and carrots and oats, or at  least the Guinness

I wish we could get some snow here in north Ga....It is so quiet and pretty as it falls, and quietly settles on the branches. We get about 2-4 inches each year, usually in Jan.-Feb. and sometimes our steep hills are so icy that we cannot get up or down. I love those days. Fire in the fireplace, hot cider or tea, and reading a good book. I prefer Ken Follett if one is available.

Lotlot -" Hoi polloi"  may be the commoners who are the vast crowd, and indeed not known by the average person, but in grammar, I would guess that the word "whom" is the most likely to be on the way out. No one uses it correctly, or ever! They say "Who do you mean?" and "Give it to whoever...." and if you say, "Whom" then folks look at you like you are alien. I would guess it will be dropped from the language before I die.  The simple "to whom" or "for whom" is as rare as the proverbial "hen's teeth."

'For Who the Bell Tolls' may be enough to give 'Whom' a boost in the words to preserve catagory. We can only hope...

Peace out

Mooseloop,et.al.~ it is with great sadness I read your obit for good words we grew up with. I fear it is because kids of today do not get the great lessons in vocabulary and music, and yes, even art, as taught to us "older kids" by the likes of      Buggs Bunny, and theThree Stooges, and even Laurel and Hardy.    The first time I ever heard "hoi Polloi" was indeed Buggs, along with many famous opera and classical music pieces that still conjur up his 'attitude & posture' when I hear them....and Stan and Ollie  did say "whom", all the time

"Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee."
 In a few years kids will have no idea what the "whom " or the "thee" mean!
And I ask myself, English teach of over 30 years, does it really matter, after all....?

This might help you understand what's been going on around here today:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/santo/ct-spt-1204-haugh-santo--20101203,0,4318315,print.column

"... and we thank you, Walgreens."


A friend of ours, listening to a breathless tale by his little son, corrected: "Whom, whom, whom!"
Little Richie straightened him out: "Meem, meem, meem!"

Then, there is that sort of misunderstanding arising out of things being different, very different, than they sound.
A young guy who worked for me in Omaha, along with two of his cocky motorcycling friends, took up a challenge by an attractive secretary in the building to tackle a difficult and remote off-road, back country bike trek.
They returned on Monday, a chastened, pale, trembling, mumbling and sapped group of men having fallen into the clutches not of the Para-legals, but the Peril Eagles.