12 Old Words that Survived by Getting Fossilized in Idioms
Some old words are nearly obsolete, but we still recognize them because they were lucky enough to get stuck in set phrases that have lasted across the centuries. Here are 12 lucky words that survived by getting fossilized in idioms.
Hey?
In parts of western Canada, especially Alberta, people will often say “Hey?” instead of “Eh?” Example: “That Flames game was crazy last night, hey?” This is a cute departure from the normal Canadian stereotype, and maybe a small act of rebellion by a province that often feels like they pay more into the system (oil) than they get out of it. Sorry guys, thanks for the oil, hey?
Obscure Color Words
- albicant: whitish; becoming white
- amaranthine: immortal; undying; deep purple-red colour
- aubergine: eggplant; a dark purple colour
- azure: light or sky blue; the heraldic colour blue
- celadon: pale green; pale green glazed pottery
- cerulean: sky-blue; dark blue; sea-green
- chartreuse: yellow-green colour
- cinnabar: red crystalline mercuric sulfide pigment; deep red or scarlet colour
- citrine: dark greenish-yellow
- eburnean: of or like ivory; ivory-coloured
- erythraean: reddish colour
- flavescent: yellowish or turning yellow
- greige: of a grey-beige colour
- haematic: blood coloured
- heliotrope: purplish hue; purplish-flowered plant; ancient sundial; signalling mirror
- hoary: pale silver-grey colour; grey with age
- isabelline: greyish yellow
- jacinthe: orange colour
- kermes: brilliant red colour; a red dye derived from insects
- lovat: grey-green; blue-green
- madder: red dye made from brazil wood; a reddish or red-orange colour
- mauve: light bluish purple
- mazarine: rich blue or reddish-blue colour
- russet: reddish brown
- sable: black; dark; of a black colour in heraldry
- saffron: orange-yellow
- sarcoline: flesh-coloured
- smaragdine: emerald green
- tilleul: pale yellowish-green
- titian: red-gold, reddish brown
- vermilion: bright red
- violescent: tending toward violent
- virid: green
- viridian: chrome green
- xanthic: yellow
- zinnober: chrome green
adomania
n. the sense that the future is arriving ahead of schedule, that all those years with fanciful names like “2013” are bursting from their hypothetical cages into the arena of the present, furiously bucking the grip of your expectations while you lean and slip in your saddle, one hand reaching for reins, the other waving up high like a schoolkid who finally knows the answer to the question.
pronunciation | ‘os-tra-“nen-E
note | generally used as an art term
Russian | остранение
semaphorism
n. a conversational hint that you have something personal to say on the subject but don’t go any further—an emphatic nod, a half-told anecdote, an enigmatic ‘I know the feeling’—which you place into conversations like those little flags that warn diggers of something buried underground: maybe a cable that secretly powers your house, maybe a fiberoptic link to some foreign country.
pronunciation | (goh-tohng roy-yuung), with the oh sounds very short
énouement
n. the bittersweetness of having arrived here in the future, where you can finally get the answers to how things turn out in the real world—who your baby sister would become, what your friends would end up doing, where your choices would lead you, exactly when you’d lose the people you took for granted—which is priceless intel that you instinctively want to share with anybody who hadn’t already made the journey with you, as if there was some part of you who had volunteered to stay behind, who was still stationed at a forgotten outpost somewhere in the past, who was still eagerly awaiting news from the front.
submitted by | kagura-shingan
submit words | here
This happened yesterday!
pronunciation | mO-nO nO a-wa-rA
Japanese script | 物の哀れ
pronunciation | ‘aut-vwI-en (OUT-vwy-ehn)
pronunciation | ‘zUg-zwang
submitted by | my friend Alex
submit words | here
