31–40 of 48 posts
A sample: "It had been a rough day, so when I walked into the party I was very chalant, despite my efforts to appear gruntled and consolate. I was furling my wieldy umbrella for the coat check when I saw her standing alone in a corner. She was a descript person, a woman in a state of total array."
Some of them -- like peccable - are probably truly dead. But others, at least to me, seem obvious when pointed out. If I ran into "scrutable" or "wieldly" in a sensible context, I'm not sure I would realize they were archaic. A personal favourite "tractable" is still current but already seems to be fading away. Far more things remain intractable. I have sometimes written a word, and then stared at it, and been unable…
“Tractable” is quite common in computer science, often to refer to problems which can be solved in polynomial time, as in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobham%27s_thesis
Some of them -- like peccable - are probably truly dead. But others, at least to me, seem obvious when pointed out. If I ran into "scrutable" or "wieldly" in a sensible context, I'm not sure I would realize they were archaic. A personal favourite "tractable" is still current but already seems to be fading away. Far more things remain intractable. I have sometimes written a word, and then stared at it, and been unable…
"Drawn" also only really feels right for the passive voice. For using "drawn" actively, the only thing that sounds remotely right is "I drew", but that sounds super strange compared to "I dragged", I'm not even sure I would have recognized the former as a usage of the verb "drag" before thinking about all this.
Here's a fun New Yorker article that takes this to an extreme: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1994/07/25/how-i-met-my-w... A sample: "It had been a rough day, so when I walked into the party I was very chalant, despite my efforts to appear gruntled and consolate. I was furling my wieldy umbrella for the coat check when I saw her standing alone in a corner. She was a descript person, a woman in a state of total ar…
Some of them -- like peccable - are probably truly dead. But others, at least to me, seem obvious when pointed out. If I ran into "scrutable" or "wieldly" in a sensible context, I'm not sure I would realize they were archaic. A personal favourite "tractable" is still current but already seems to be fading away. Far more things remain intractable. I have sometimes written a word, and then stared at it, and been unable…
> Drag, drug, druggen/drawn. Some of these may not be current in your dialect anymore. I say dragged. "Drawn" also only really feels right for the passive voice. For using "drawn" actively, the only thing that sounds remotely right is "I drew", but that sounds super strange compared to "I dragged", I'm not even sure I would have recognized the former as a usage of the verb "drag" before thinking about all this.
Drawn/drew aren't uses of "drag" at all, but are uses of "draw" which can be a synonym for "pull" (among many other uses.)
Gormless is one of my favourite words in this category. You cannot be "gormfull".
Dan Dennett once quipped the he would like to see "evitable" as a word, with a similar meaning to "avoidable", but without the connotation that it is a future that we wish to avoid.
> Let us think the unthinkable, let us do the undoable, let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.
Here's a fun New Yorker article that takes this to an extreme: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1994/07/25/how-i-met-my-w... A sample: "It had been a rough day, so when I walked into the party I was very chalant, despite my efforts to appear gruntled and consolate. I was furling my wieldy umbrella for the coat check when I saw her standing alone in a corner. She was a descript person, a woman in a state of total ar…
Dan Dennett once quipped the he would like to see "evitable" as a word, with a similar meaning to "avoidable", but without the connotation that it is a future that we wish to avoid.