Using "archaic" words

[JT Woody]

What are your thoughts about using (or reviving) words that the dictionary deems "archaic?"
I've come across some really beautiful words from waaaay back that I want to use. Its not like they dont exist anymore!

Side note... also wondering why these words fell out of fashion...

 

[CatrionaGrace]

Please, by all means, revive your favorites. It's not like you're trying to bring back powder-blue polyester leisure suits for men.

 

[Catrin Lewis]

Please, by all means, revive your favorites. It's not like you're trying to bring back powder-blue polyester leisure suits for men.

Ooh! Ooh! Someone else who hates powder blue polyester sleazure suits as much as I do? Back in the late '70s when they were popular, I kept saying to myself, "Fashions change. This horror will pass. It will, it must pass."

I also never liked disco. So shoot me.

But hey, @JT Woody, if you can use the words you're keen on in a natural, unselfconscious way, have at it.

 

[Naomasa298]

The more archaic, the better, as long as it doesn't descend into full thee, thou, tush and fie, and verily.

 

[JLT]

And give your readers a break by allowing them to figure out the meaning of the word by its context.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

Verily I say unto thee: what is archaic about tush? Upon mine own I sitteth at this moment.

 

[Catrin Lewis]

"Tush" ain't archaic at all, not in my neck of the woods!

Unless our good @Naomasa298 means it as in "Pish, tush!" and not as that part of one's corporeal substance one sits upon?

 

[JLT]

I was re-reading some of Ellis Peters's Cadfael books and admiring how she could write in modern English and still give it an archaic feel by the use of words that would have been familiar to the characters. She also used what seemed to be a Shakespearean cadence in dialog.

 

[Naomasa298]

Unless our good @Naomasa298 means it as in "Pish, tush!" and not as that part of one's corporeal substance one sits upon?

MARGARET
Tush, women have been captivate ere now.
Henry V, Part I. Act 5, Scene 3.

I'm not so sure now....

 

[SilverBear]

What are your thoughts about using (or reviving) words that the dictionary deems "archaic?"
I've come across some really beautiful words from waaaay back that I want to use. Its not like they dont exist anymore!

Side note... also wondering why these words fell out of fashion...

Go for it! I read Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child who write together. Every book I look forward to their using a word or words I don't know.

 

[Luxuria]

Weird words I use in real life and in books:
Behove (Yes, spelled the UK way. My Mom once said after reading something I wrote noted how I tend to mix US and UK spellings. Dsyslexia maybe? Or reading?)
Thus
Therefore
Hence/henceforth
Wherefore
I know there are a few others, but these are usual words in my vocabulary. Haha.

 

[Naomasa298]

Thus
Therefore
Hence/henceforth
Wherefore
I know there are a few others, but these are usual words in my vocabulary. Haha.

None of these are particularly weird though.

 

[Naomasa298]

Props and a wiener to people who know, without looking it up, what the word "niggardly" means, and who has used it in their writing.

 

[Luxuria]

None of these are particularly weird though.

THANK YOU! I always feel like people must think I sound stuffy, but it's just how I talk! OMG. It would behove them to understand I enjoy formal terms and wording.

 

[Naomasa298]

THANK YOU! I always feel like people must think I sound stuffy, but it's just how I talk! OMG. It would behove them to understand I enjoy formal terms and wording.

I don't even think they're particularly formal. I use them all the time when speaking and writing. Maybe they are to "young people".

 

[Luxuria]

I don't even think they're particularly formal. I use them all the time when speaking and writing. Maybe they are to "young people".

Hahah, maybe. I mean, I am not YOUNG. But I am also not what one might concider old. (Midway upon the Journey of our lives...)

 

[JT Woody]

Hahah, maybe. I mean, I am not YOUNG. But I am also not what one might concider old. (Midway upon the Journey of our lives...)

Fun Fact: i had a big vocabulary as a kid because, if i stuttered on a word or if i KNEW i'd stutter on a word, i'd find a different word to use (substitution). The Thesaurus kinda became my friend
So, sometimes i use "old" words out of habit

 

[Luxuria]

Fun Fact: i had a big vocabulary as a kid because, if i stuttered on a word or if i KNEW i'd stutter on a word, i'd find a different word to use (substitution). The Thesaurus kinda became my friend
So, sometimes i use "old" words out of habit

I am sorry you had to cope with stuttering growing up. I totally get it, though. I feel the same way about words I can't spell. Haha. I just avoid them. In fact, I have a LIST in y head of words I CANNOT spell for the life of me, so don't.

 

[defaux]

Personally, I'm a huge fan of reviving old words, and also using words in their original context when a modernism may have changed their meaning.

GPT often labels my writing as "archaic" when I paste things in to check for grammar or tense errors. I prefer to call it "classically styled".

I think it's fine when it suits the style of the whole piece of work -- if you are writing something in a very modern vernacular with a lot of slang and dialogue in current a speech mode, then a single word would likely feel out of place. But if the whole thing has that feel of something a little bit aged or formal, and the word usage fits the tone, then good placement of particular words can really elevate a piece. IMO.