Endangered Words and Phrases

Nigel   Mon Apr 10, 2006 8:07 am GMT
towards
perhaps
skilful
realise
traveller
fitted
have got
sprang
disc
fortnight
sank
ageing
kilometre
mediaeval
amoeba
paediatrics
bloke
dived
biscuit
favourite
colour
Guest   Mon Apr 10, 2006 8:19 am GMT
I use them all the time. You can take them off the list.
Guest   Mon Apr 10, 2006 8:21 am GMT
Here's a couple.

torch
aeroplane
Uriel   Mon Apr 10, 2006 1:23 pm GMT
What are you talking about Nigel? I might spell some of them differently, but I use 'em all the time -- except for bloke, fortnight, and have got.
Jim C, York   Mon Apr 10, 2006 1:27 pm GMT
Bloke and Fortnight are going strong over here. So the list doesn't mean anything then!
Guest   Mon Apr 10, 2006 2:13 pm GMT
What could you possibly replace fortnight with, in a single word?
Uriel   Mon Apr 10, 2006 4:26 pm GMT
Why do you need a single word to refer to two weeks? There's no equivalent for three weeks!
Jim C, York   Mon Apr 10, 2006 4:31 pm GMT
Half of a month, makes sense to me. Week, Fortnight, Month...
Uriel   Mon Apr 10, 2006 5:14 pm GMT
I guess when you've gone your whole life without needing such a term, it just seems superfluous.
Guest   Mon Apr 10, 2006 10:25 pm GMT
>>Why do you need a single word to refer to two weeks? There's no equivalent for three weeks!<<

Because it's simpler and the notion is used regularly enough to merit it.
Uriel   Mon Apr 10, 2006 11:38 pm GMT
I've never used it. ;)
Kirk   Mon Apr 10, 2006 11:49 pm GMT
Yes, I've never seen "fortnight" except for in British texts and possibly old American ones. It's not used here.
Damian in Edinburgh   Tue Apr 11, 2006 7:10 am GMT
Fortnight is commonly used in the UK.....eg: "we have a fortnight's holiday in August". It's derived from the Old English for fourteen nights.......ie: two weeks.

I honestly can't agree that those words on Nigel's list have passed their sell-by date. Maybe we should compose a list of words that have truly passed into oblivion......words that are no longer used these days or have radically changed their meaning. Shakespeare / Samuel Pepys et al used words that now have totally different meanings from those current in their time. eg Pepys would say: "It was a brave morning as I strolled through St James' Park" meaning it was bloody freezing (bloody was not considered an oath in his day......nor words describing bodily functions...he used them regularly before they became "indelicate" with the advent of Victorian prudishness). He used the word "merry" to mean irritated and uncomfortable, like when he stayed the night in an inn at Salisbury and the fleas in his mattress made him "merry all the night long"! It's unlikely that such a situation today would make anyone "merry"...unless of course, we had supped a great deal of Bristol Milk, which to Pepys simply meant a sweet sherry.

According to Pepys, a genius was an inbred person. A jole was a particular cut of fish; a doxy was a prostitute; a crazy was an infirm person; a mystery was a craft, an artistic ability or a trade; a whisk was a woman's handkerchief; to school someone was to scold them; a pleasant was a comic person, a comedian; passionate meant pathetic as well as provoking compassion; a nursery was a training school for actors; to gossip was to act as a godparent; effeminancy meant the love of women!; dialect was ocal jargon...so not much change there over 350 years.....
Nigel   Tue Apr 11, 2006 8:41 am GMT
Well, I am relieved. I was thinking more of spelling changes, but if "bloke" and "fortnight" aren't used in America it seems they're younger expressions than I thought. I'd have thought fortnight came from fourteen nights, so thought it would have been well known by the time America became independent.

Thanks, Guest, but wouldn't it be "airplane" rather than "aeroplane" in America? Or is aeroplane used sometimes?
Guest   Tue Apr 11, 2006 10:33 am GMT
"Aeroplane" isn't used in America. "Fortnight" probably was used at one point but dropped out of popular usage.