Seldom-Used Words

It was not hyphenated in my research or the dictionary, so I will leave it as it lays.

Here is one I never ran into before;

manumission - the act of the slave owner freeing his or her slave

AllardChardon said:

It was not hyphenated in my research or the dictionary, so I will leave it as it lays.

Here is one I never ran into before;

manumission - the act of the slave owner freeing his or her slave

Click to expand...

Manumission was rare because the slave was an expensive item of property. In Roman times manumitting a slave might be to celebrate something special like a son coming of age.

More usual was a manumission because the slave had accumulated enough money to purchase his freedom.

However, manumission need not be beneficial. Some Romans manumitted slaves if they were ill or old - because then the slave had to fend for his or herself. At least one Roman was recorded as buying old or ill slaves, at knockdown prices, taking them to his hospital and bringing them back to health or on very light duties, before selling them on again.

Og

Yes, indeed, Ogg, and thanks for the clarification. The wiki page said there were three main reasons for maumission;

"Firstly, manumission may present itself as a sentimental and benevolent gesture. One typical scenario was the freeing in the master's will of a devoted servant after long years of service. This kind of manumission generally was restricted to slaves who had some degree of intimacy with their masters, such as those serving as personal attendants, household servants, secretaries and the like. In some cases, master and slave had had a long-term sexual relationship, perhaps with tenderness felt on one or both sides. Some manumitted slaves were the offspring of such sexual encounters. While a trusted bailiff might be manumitted as a gesture of gratitude, for those working as agricultural labourers or in workshops there was little likelihood of being so noticed.

Such feelings of benevolence may have been of value to slave owners themselves as it allowed them to focus on a 'humane component' in the human traffic of slavery. A cynical view of testamentary manumission might also add that the slave was only freed once the master could no longer make use of them. In general it was also much more common for old slaves to be given freedom, that is to say once they had reached the age where they were beginning to be less useful. Legislation under the early Roman empire put limits on the number of slaves that could be freed in wills (Fufio-Caninian law 2 BC), suggesting a pronounced enthusiasm for the practice.

At the same time freeing slaves could also serve the pragmatic interests of the owner. The prospect of manumission worked as an incentive for slaves to be industrious and compliant, the light at the end of the tunnel. Roman slaves were paid a wage (pecunium) with which they could save up to, in effect, buy themselves. Or to put it from the master's point of view, they are providing the money to buy a fresh and probably younger version of themselves. (In this light, the pecunium becomes an early example of a "sinking fund".) Manumission contracts found in some abundance at Delphi specify in detail the prerequisites for liberation.

In the United States, manumission had two main motivations. The first was linked to a self purchasing agreement between the slave and his or her owner. This agreement awarded the slaves his/her freedom while still allowing the owner to make a profit. The slave would agree to market farm produce or do additional employment somewhere else. Secondly, slaveholders would free slaves if they were changing their cash crop. When switching from tobacco to wheat, a slave holder would need fewer slave hands because the crop would not need year-round service."


Just thought we could clarify this practice all the way across the board. Thanks for your interest and accurate input.

How about this useful but seldom-used adjective...

callipygian - having shapely buttocks.

paramour - an illicit lover especially a mistress

Callipygian makes me recall:


steatopygia • n., (στεατοπυγία) is a high degree of fat accumulation in and around the buttocks. The deposit of fat is not confined to the gluteal regions, but extends to the outside and front of the thighs, forming a thick layer reaching sometimes to the knee.

tawdry - cheap and gaudy in appearance and quality

teratologist A teller of tall tales.

skulduggery - a devious device or trick, also the habit or practice of deviousness

Skul(l)duggery which can be spelt correctly with either one l or two was originally a Scottish word skulduddery which meant unchastity.

One would think skullduggery would have meant a grave robber or some such thing. Unchastity is rather anti-climatic.

Here is a goody;

braggadocio - 1. BRAGGART, BOASTER 2. a. empty boasting; b. COCKINESS

hypnopomp - departure from sleep, or the state of mind as one departs from sleep.

verisimilitude - having the appearance of being true or real

dodrantal - adj. being nine inches long

hurr hurr

Good one, Xelebes. You can image what popped into my mind.

bilk - 1. BALK, FRUSTRATE 2. to cheat out of what is due, to avoid payment of 3. to slip away from, ELUDE

bilk - An untrustworthy tricky individual - CHEAT

hirquitalliency - strength of voice

A useful word for florid orgasms.

AllardChardon said:

tawdry - cheap and gaudy in appearance and quality

Click to expand...

tawdry derives from St Audrey's Fair held in Ely, Norfolk. St Audrey, properly St Ethelfreda was celebrated with a one-day fair at which cheap and showy neckwear was sold. The quality was so poor that the word "tawdry" was used to describe any goods looking better than they actually are.

Og

Some of these words transcend seldom-used words and teeter toward never-used words, but I love them all.

How about these two definitions of this word?

gull - to make a dupe of; DECEIVE

gull - a person who is easily deceived or cheated; DUPE

Of course, we all know about gullible

Seldom-used?

Some of the words in this thread are not "seldom-used" in British English - tawdry and bilk are recent examples.

But many words in common use in the US, or parts of the US, would be seldom-used in British parlance.

Og

prandicle - a small meal.

I made a prandicle of her cunt.

valetudinarian - a person preoccupied by their ill health; a weak, sickly person.

It seems like the British people use more of the English language than Americans.

Words that must be looked up are avoided, catering to the sixth grade mentality of most readers here.

Thanks for expanding my vocabulary and it usage, here and abroad.

conge' - 1. a. a formal permission to depart b. DISMISSAL 2. a ceremonious bow 3. FAREWELL 4. an architectural molding of concave profile

ephydriad - water nymph

The callipygian ephydriad, sitting at the pool-side, winked at me.