Fancy Vocab
In this blog I am going to mention a lot of old vocabulary that can make you look illustrated if you write them in a work, and most importantly, it is going to enrich your speech. Many of this words came from Old English or Anglo-Saxon, the earliest form of the English language brought by the Anglo-Saxon settlers to Great Britain; it is consider a separate language from Modern English because they are not intelligible between one another. My purpose in bringing Old English terms is to rescue them from the oblivion, and resurrect them so that at least they can be used in literature. But the majority of the words that I am going to present are from diverse origins, such as Latin, French, and Middle English.
Sweven: (Old English) vision or dream.
In my last sweven, I could see how our kingdom is going to turn into an empire after my son is going to be named king.
Puissant: (Latin) having puissance (power).
Roman's rule was undoubtedly puissant over the Mediterranean after they defeated the Carthaginians.
Ambodexter: (Old English) a cheat or a crook. Note: it really means ambidextrous, but the word was used to define someone untrustworthy.
Never give your money to the bankers, they are ambodexters.
Contumelious: (Old French) scornful, humiliating, or arrogantly rude.
He has been the worst king ever: he was contumelious with lower classes, he applied contumelious laws to those who could not pay the taxes, and he was contumelious with the senate when they tried to tell him in a tactful way how obtuse were his new laws and ambitions.
Excogitate: (Latin) to devise, plot or plan.
We could just excogitate the coup d'état in one month before they could find our den in the jungle.
Gallimaufry: (Middle French) a hodgepodge or a jumble of things.
This new fashion collection is a gallimaufry of styles for all types of likes.
Septentrional: (Latin) from the north or related to it.
Apollo goes in his float every nineteen years to Hyperborea, a region in the most septentrional lands, to rejuvenate himself.
Cozen: (Italian) to swindle, deceive, or induce to do something by artful deception.
They cozened us with the idea that banks are places to maintain safely our money.
Hugger-mugger: (Middle English) a muddle, something confused or disorderly, secret or clandestine action.
"Thus is the talkyng of one and of oder As men dare speke it hugger-mugger."
John Skelton's Magnyfycence, 1520
Welkin: (Old English) the firmament or celestial vault, or heaven.
"Make the welkin ring", phrase used to describe when something is so loud that makes the heavens reverberate.
Equipollent: (Anglo-Norman) "equal in force, power, or validity."
Both arguments in the debate seemed to be equipollent about what to do with child soldiers.
Apricity: (Latin) "the warmth of the sun in winter".
We felt happy in my old town when the apricity came, since almost all winter days were cloudy, and therefore colder.
Dwimmer-crafty: (Old English and Tolkien) skilled in the magical arts.
Gandalf and Dumbledore are the most dwimmer-crafty people that I know in literature.
Sanguinolent: (Latin) "of or related to blood", or someone "...with a passion for bloodshed."
Vlad Drăculea and Ivan the Terrible were one of the most sanguinolent rulers in history.
Uhtceare: (Old English) "lying awake before dawn and worrying".
I had Uhtceare today because of the final test.
Expergefactor: (Old English) something that wakes one up.
I don't need an expergefactor, I just wake up naturally minutes before the sunrise.
Rawgabbit: (Old English) "person who speaks self-assuredly about a subject of which they know nothing."
Most of the people who comment about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the media are rawgabbits.
Bedward: (Middle English) toward bed or towards bedtime.
Brabble: (Middle Dutch) argue loudly about a matter of no importance.
The student was brabbling with the Choir teacher about why he had to wear a tie instead of a bow tie for the concert.
Crapulous: (Latin) "marked by intemperance especially in eating or drinking" or "sick from excessive indulgence in liquor".
While we are starving, those in the elite are being crapulous, even going to vomitoriums to continue eating.
Elflock: (Middle English) hair that is tangled in such a way that seems to have been matted by elves (I know this is a weird term).
She looked so beautiful that night, and her hair was elflock.
Erstwhile: (Middle English) in the past.
There are know computers to do your homework easier and quicker, while erstwhile we had to write it by hand using books.
Fudgel: (Old English) "pretending to work when you're not actually doing anything at all."
I was fudgeling during class during the dictation because I didn't want to interrupt it asking for a sharpener.
Groke: (Old English) to stare at someone while he is eating in hopes that he will give you some food.
Always when I groke, I receive what I wanted; the trick is to stare at the person the whole time while he is eating.
Grubble: (Old English) "to feel or grope in the dark."
He literally grubbled my ass when there was no light in the corridor.
Jargogle: (Old English) to jumble or confuse.
You are jargogling the yogurt with the milk; you should have added milk to the mixture.
Mumpsimus: (Latin) "...is an action by a person who adheres to a routine, idea, custom, set of beliefs, or a certain use of language that has been shown to be unreasonable or incorrect." "A person who persists in a mistaken expression or practice." The opposed of this term is sumpsimus.
‘‘A young priest once corrected an old priest for saying mumpsimus instead of sumpsimus in the first prayer after Communion in the Latin Mass. ‘Son,’ said the old priest, ‘I've been saying mumpsimus for thirty years and I'm not going to change my old mumpsimus for your new sumpsimus.'’’
Snottor, snotor, or snoter: (Old English) wise and clever.
Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy are really snottor writers.
Trumpery: (Middle English) worthless nonsense, useless articles, or tawdry finery.
The National Enquirer is trumpery, saying bad stuff about George Michael without evidence.
Ultracrepidarian: (Latin) someone that gives opinions and advice on things outside of his knowledge (rawgabbit).
Many social media places of information are Ultracrepidarian.
Zwodder: (Old English) in a drowsy, fuzzy or foolish state of mind.
That guy is always zwodder in the early morning; better to give him more chance to sleep.
