We’ve been truly dashelled today! Having fun with Forgotten English
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 5th, 2012 at 5:15 PM
Day five of Jeffrey Kacirk’s Forgotten English page a day calendar, is particularly apt. Today’s word is ‘dashelled’ which means ‘beaten about and wetted by bad weather.’
I was given the calendar for Christmas, and I’m looking forward to unveiling a long forgotten word each day throughout 2012.
I’ve already discovered such gems as ‘toad-under-a-harrow’. Apparently it means a man whose wife not only henpecks, but makes sure the entire world witnesses the indignities he suffers at her hands. And I’ve leapt ahead to the weekend where I found ‘gubbertushed’ – used to describe someone with projecting teeth.
It’s funny how words from long ago seem so much more expressive somehow!
Jeffrey Kacirk was brought up in San Diego. He became fascinated by the dialog and ‘general antiquity’ of Shakespeare’s plays, which he saw performed at the nearby Old Globe Theater. In college he became, “intrigued with European and American social history, especially the languages, activities, and customs.”
He’s included these longtime interests in several books and calendars which you can find on his website, Forgotten English.
His book of the same name contains recipe terms such as dilligrout, and uzzle-pye. Mmm, they both sound frighteningly like descriptions of something I might serve up…
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