Seldom-Used Words

Status
Not open for further replies.
Welcome, braincum. Thanks for the additional information. I love that!

Og, I recently learned that John Quincy Adams was elected to the Presidency on an Anti-Masonic platform that was very popular at the time. If I remember correctly, the Anti-Masonic movement was the first to use a convention to select a presidential candidate. The idea caught on, even if the party didn't remain. Thanks for the interior design tips, I strive to be accurate in my descriptions of the 1850s.

privity - noun 1. private or joint knowledge of a private matter; esp: cognizance implying concurrence 2.a. a relationship between persons who successively have a legal interest in the same right or property b. an interest in a transaction, contract, or legal action to which one is not a party arising out of a relationship to one of the parties
 
I will be taking a three day vacation and will not be online, so please continue on without me, and I will post again, when I return;

privateer - noun 1. an armed private ship commissioned to cruise against the commerce or warships of an enemy 2. the commander or one of the crew of a privateer
 
I will be taking a three day vacation and will not be online, so please continue on without me, and I will post again, when I return;

privateer - noun 1. an armed private ship commissioned to cruise against the commerce or warships of an enemy 2. the commander or one of the crew of a privateer

e.g. the CSS Alabama
 
I will be taking a three day vacation and will not be online, so please continue on without me, and I will post again, when I return;

privateer - noun 1. an armed private ship commissioned to cruise against the commerce or warships of an enemy 2. the commander or one of the crew of a privateer

A hockey team based in Alexandria Bay, NY...

1000IslandsPrivateers.PNG
 
Thank you, Og, for the information on the CSS Alabama. You certainly know your warships. I have been watching Ken Burns Civil War and the section on the Monitor and the Merrimack was very interesting.

prithee - inter [alter of (I) pray thee] archaic - used to express a wish or request
 
Hello everyone, I have safely returned.

Trysail, there is nothing as beautiful as a sailing ship. Thanks for the pictures.

prissy - adj [prop a blend of prim and sissy] being prim and precise: FINICKY
 
Nocent

One of my favorites is nocent, meaning harmful or hurtful. It is the nearly vanished positive of innocent.

Similarly related are the rare nocuous and the rather common innocuous.

All are related to the word noxious.
 
Yes, indeed, Carlus and whelm suffers the same fate to overwhelm. Funny how one word hangs on while another fades.

Does anyone know of this game?

prisoner's base - noun a game in which players of one team seek to tag and imprison players of another team who have ventured out of their own territory

We used to play Kick the Can which has similiarities, but everyone would be set free, when a team player made it to the holding area and kicked the can.
 
Good day, everyone. Here is one that caught my eye;

printer's devil - noun an apprentice in a printing office
 


hobbledehoy • n., a boy or adolescent youth, esp. one who is awkward and gawky.





The word was used in a PBS broadcast of Sense and Sensibility. I've heard and seen hobbledehoy many times but never previously took the time to run it to ground.


 
That is a great word, Trysail. Here is one from my reading last night;

fussbudget - noun one who fusses about trifles
 
Very funny, VoteForME. My late husband used to joke about that word and its constant mispronounciation all the time. Thanks for the laugh.

I used this word in another thread of mine and wanted to post it here;

smithereens - noun plural FRAGMENTS, BITS
 
How about these two? Has anyone heard them used this way?

prink - verb [probably an alternate of prank(2)] PRIMP

prank(2) - verb [prob from Dutch pronken to strut; akin to MHG gebrunkel glitter of metal] vt 1. to dress or adorn gaily or showily 2. ADORN, SPANGLE ~ to make an ostentatious show
 
How about these two? Has anyone heard them used this way?

prink - verb [probably an alternate of prank(2)] PRIMP

...

Yes.

Historical slang:

prink noun An act of making (generally oneself) spruce circa 1895.

prink verb t To make spruce, in reflexive, to dress oneself up: colloquial 1576 Gascoigne: Now I stand prinking me in the glasse.

prinked the past participle adjective of prink = all dressed up. North 1579.

prinker A very fastidious dresser of self: coll from circa 1699.

prinking A fastidious adorning, mostly of oneself: coll 1699.

prinkum-prankum 1. A prank coll: late C16-C17 2. generally meant as plural - Stress on prinkum; Fine clothes, fastidious adornment C18-early C19.

Mistress (or Mrs) Princum-Prancum A fastidious, precise, formal woman. Late C17-early C19.

Beau Brummell and Beau Nash were Regency examples of prinkers, in the sense that they were fastidious rather than showy dressers. Georgette Heyer's heroes and heroines were usually prinkers rather than followers of the extremes of contemporary fashion.

R H Emerson wrote about C19 Englishmen "If he is a Lord he dresses a little worse than a commoner." and male English commoners dressed very badly. Prinking was a reaction to slovenliness of dress and was more likely to be practised by the lower orders of nobility and the aspiring middle classes rather than the higher ranking nobility who didn't care what people thought of their dress. It is still true to a certain extent in England. Lords and Ladies at home dress to be comfortable rather than in any style.

In the C18 and C19 prinking was considered as commendable rather than excessive. C19 ladies clothing e.g. Directoire or early crinoline (hoop skirt) fashions, was intended to show that a lady needed a lady's maid to dress, and that she did not have to consider that her clothes might be soiled by any form of housework. The invention of the cheap steel-hooped crinoline made hoop skirts available to almost all women, including servants. Even servants would prink for going to Church on Sundays.
 
Last edited:
Reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog (Muriel Barbery) recently, I came across a delightful word that I had not seen or heard for a very long time: furbelow. It was used in the sense of ‘a gathered strip or pleated border of a skirt or petticoat’. In a derogatory sense, it can also mean ‘showy ornaments’.
 
furbelow is supposed to be a version of 'far below' - the lowest part of a dress or skirt.

Some Victorian furbelows were actually a balayeuse - a strip of coarse cloth temporarily attached to the bottom of a floor-skimming skirt that swept the floor or street (balayeuse is French for broom) and could be easily removed for washing when soiled.

Since C19 streets were often inches deep in mud and horse-shit, a balayeuse could be essential for outdoor dresses. Dickensian crossing-sweepers would sweep the horse-shit away for a few coppers.
 
Thanks so much, Og, I will definitely use prinkum-prankum in book two during their stay in New Orleans. Your knowledge of the English language, present or obsolete, proper or slang, never ceases to amaze me.

Furbelow is another word that is too good not to use in the same book. Thank you and welcome, SamScribble.

Here is one more;

princox - noun archaic a pert youth: COXCOMB
 
More on balayeuse

In modern French a balayeuse is either a roadsweeping vehicle, or a mechnical broom such as a Ewbank.

In fashion, the balayeuse evolved from being a practical solution to filthy streets to a decorative lace addition to the trains attached to bustle dresses. Like furbelows, decorative balayeuses were not meant to be seen by gentlemen. Revealing your furbelows or balayeuses was considered to be a flirtatious invitation.

In the UK until the 1980s, showing a petticoat edge was not done. There were euphemisms used to warn a lady that she was showing more of her underpinnings than was acceptable e.g. "Charlie's dead". When 1980s fashion started attaching false lace petticoat trims to denim skirts it caused some consternation among older women who considered the fashion immodest.
 
Og, In my reading about fashion of the 1850s, the unseen petticoat rule was very much in force in the United States, as well. Since so many people in America were originally from Europe, it makes sense the styles would be the same or very similar. I was amazed how much influence Queen Victoria's fashions had on women here.

coxcomb - noun 1.a. obs: a jester's cap adorned with a strip of red b. archaic: PATE, HEAD 2.a. obs: FOOL b. a conceited follish person: FOP - coxcombical/adjective
 
Og, In my reading about fashion of the 1850s, the unseen petticoat rule was very much in force in the United States, as well. Since so many people in America were originally from Europe, it makes sense the styles would be the same or very similar. I was amazed how much influence Queen Victoria's fashions had on women here.

...

We refer to 'Victorian' fashions because that was the relevant period in UK history BUT from the 1840s onwards the real influence in the UK and the US was from Paris, particularly Charles Worth, who introduced the wider hooped skirts.

Most fashion plates of the time refer to 'the latest Paris fashions' and not to London or New York.

Up to 1810 French Napoleonic Empire styles dominated Europe, even in countries at war with France. From then to before 1840 the French were influenced by London. Their fashion plates mentioned 'English style'.

(Worth, of course, was an Englishman) :rolleyes:
 
Thank you, Og, for the information on Charles Worth. It was worth it. hehe

princeling - noun PRINCELET
 
In modern French a balayeuse is either a roadsweeping vehicle, or a mechnical broom such as a Ewbank.

In fashion, the balayeuse evolved from being a practical solution to filthy streets to a decorative lace addition to the trains attached to bustle dresses. Like furbelows, decorative balayeuses were not meant to be seen by gentlemen. Revealing your furbelows or balayeuses was considered to be a flirtatious invitation.

In the UK until the 1980s, showing a petticoat edge was not done. There were euphemisms used to warn a lady that she was showing more of her underpinnings than was acceptable e.g. "Charlie's dead". When 1980s fashion started attaching false lace petticoat trims to denim skirts it caused some consternation among older women who considered the fashion immodest.

Which, of course, brings us to the motto of the Order of the Garter, Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense , so nicely "translated" in 1066 and All That as "Honey, I think your slip is showing."
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top