It depends on which words and why you're using them. Examples?
Using "archaic" words
- Thread starter JT Woody
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Perspicacity, malodourous, melliferous, proffer, manse, elucidation, purloin, hither and yon, recalcitrance, enervation, presage, dalliance, deleterious, peregrinations, cognisance, predilection, gaol, parlous, and a few dozen others.
Not all of them are archaic, but they're uncommon in modern writing.
I used recalcitrant and elucidate today, I think. Never been a fan of perspicacity.
About forty-five minutes ago I told my husband that someone has been acting peevish. Maybe it's a Southern thing because I heard it a lot growing up, too often aimed at me.I don't use peregrinations (though I certainly shall in the near future), or parlous, manse only when I'm talking about Presbyterian preachers (which isn't often), but the rest of them are useful on a regular basis.
No, wait. Not melliferous. I'm thinking of mellifluous. Still sweet, but not honey.
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Even gaol?
As the old story goes, upon being married, the young wife stated "We will live at the old manse". The newspaper of the day thus reported "The couple will reside at the home of the bride's father."
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Yep. Law enforcement family. Use all sorts of similar words. Hoosegow. Calaboose. Carcel. (Put an accent mark over the a). Durance vile.
Interesting. I didn't think it had ever been adopted into American parlance.
We read Oscar Wilde, too. It's used ironically. Clink or lockup are more common.
I blame Mr. Webster.
He did it all without computers, too.
That's not though, the definition that Shakespeare was using - and that's the one I'm referring to, rather than the 'murcan sense.
I dunno. Seems to me a businessman needs to be perspicacious.
)
That's the "pish, tush" sense of the word. Like, "nonsense!" or "don't be stupid!"
I suspect the "rear end" meaning of the word is a variation of the Yiddish term "tuches." It would have come in from the Jewish Immigrants who landed in New York in the 19th and 20th centuries.
I think you have it right. There are a few influences of Yiddish in English (or at least American English) speech, not just in vocabulary but in syntax. For example, Robert Claiborne points out that "by me" (as in, "That's OK by me") is a direct translation of the Yiddish bei mir.
But not use the word if they want to be taken seriously.
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