FORGOTTEN ENGLISH.

September 30, 2002 by languagehat Leave a Comment

From a calendar of “vanishing vocabulary and folklore” given me last Christmas by a certain musical canine, for your delectation…
dateless: stupid; stupefied, dazed, without memory. From the analogy of a deed or letter which, without date, is legally useless.
smicker: to look amorously or wantonly.
gizzen: to grin audibly.
hempy: mischievous; having the qualities likely to suffer by cat o’nine tails, or the halter.
rotten logging: a term used when romantic couples sit on a log by moonlight to court.

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FORGOTTEN ENGLISH.

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