This week all my new words came from Emma. Even if I\’m not enjoying the book, it\’s expanding my vocabulary! A lot of them are so archaic, though, I fear I\’ll never use them. O well, at least they\’ll be recognizable next time I meet them in print.
Valetudinarian– \”The evil of the actual disparity in their ages was much increased by his constitution and habits; for having been a valetudinarian all his life, without activity of mind or body, he was a much older man in ways than in years…\”
Definition: a sickly or weak person, constantly concerned with their own health
Mizzle– \”Ever since the day that Miss Taylor and I met with him in Broadway-lane, when, because it began to mizzle, he darted away with so much gallantry, and borrowed two umbrellas for us…\”
Definition: rain in a fine mist, drizzle
Cockade– \”Here is my sketch of the fourth, who was a baby… and it is as strong a likeness of his cockade as you would wish to see.\”
Definition: a feather or rosette on a hat
Cavil– \”Her eyes, a deep grey, with dark eye-lashes and eye-brows, had never been denied their praise, but the skin, which she had been used to cavil at, as wanting colour, had a clearness and delicacy which really needed no fuller bloom.\”
Definition: to find fault with, or make a trivial objection
Recontre– \”…the history which he had to give Mrs. Cole of the rise and progress of the affair was so glorious- the steps so quick from the accidental recontre, to the dinner at Mrs. Green\’s, and the party at Mrs. Brown\’s…\”
Definition: an unplanned meeting
Tippet– \”Jane, Jane, my dear Jane, where are you? Here is your tippet. Mrs. Weston begs you to put on your tippet. She says she is afraid there will be draughts in the passage.\”
Definition: a woman\’s fur shoulder cape with hanging ends
There were also a lot of words I knew, but whose spelling gave them unfamiliar faces: chuse for choose, foretel for foretell, beaufet for buffet, stopt for stopped, sopha for sofa, surprize for surprise, huswife for housewife, etc. I\’m not sure which of these words have different spellings because they\’re British, or just because spelling wasn\’t standardized back in the 1800\’s? But they made for interesting reading!
For more wondrous words, visit the host of this meme at Bermudaonion\’s Weblog.